


Body Image

by OnTheFritz



Category: Cats (1998), Cats - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T. S. Eliot
Genre: Body Swap, M/M, Misto's Magical Mishaps, silly stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26292316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnTheFritz/pseuds/OnTheFritz
Summary: Another one of Mistoffelees's spells goes awry, leaving a particular set of Jellicles with an unusual problem. Body swap story. Very silly stuff.
Relationships: Alonzo/Munkustrap (Cats)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 45





	1. Rude Awakenings

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again, just popping in with this random fic that showed up in my brain. Written purely for fun and will probably be no more than two, maybe three chapters.

Munkustrap woke to a pounding headache that abruptly wrenched him from his sleep. Alonzo's usual warm, comfortable presence at his side was absent, replaced with a vice holding his arm hostage. Blearily he opened his eyes, surprised to find that he was not resting in his den, which is where he had definitely remembered falling asleep the night before. 

He didn't immediately call out for Alonzo, wisely deciding to keep quiet on the off chance that someone had, for some reason, moved him in the middle of the night and chained him for nefarious purposes. As usual his mind went to Macavity, merely because the Napoleon of Crime always was a suspect in strange circumstances.

That sinister line of thought was quickly abandoned, however, as his eyes slowly began to adjust to his surroundings. 

Why was he in Tugger's den? 

The vice around his arm shifted. He looked down to see the unmistakable furry red figure of Bombalurina latched tightly to his arm. She was sleeping with her mouth wide open, letting out the occasional breathy snore. It was an ungainly sight for the usually sensual queen. Even more unusual was that she was in bed with him. When had that happened, and why?

Munk opened his mouth to finally speak and was immediately treated to a mouthful of fluff. Sputtering, he tried to push it away but realized that it was, in fact, attached to him. For some reason, against all odds, he had sprouted a mane overnight. 

Slowly he looked down at himself. For another unknown reason he had abruptly changed color. And height. And everything else. 

"No." Munk said in a voice that had also changed, mind suddenly racing. "No."

At his side Bomba snorted and let go of Munk's arm, wiping drool off her face with the back of her hand.

"Shuddup. 'm tryin' sleep." She muttered, rudely kicking him in the side before rolling over.

Munk was too busy trying not to panic to even care that he was in bed with her. He had other pressing matters to attend to. They were in Tugger's den. There had to be a mirror around. In fact, he had just recently lent a mirror to his brother, it had to be somewhere nearby.

Munk's hasty rummaging was loud enough to wake up Bomba, who rolled back over and fixed him with a glare that would instantly sour milk.

"Everlasting Cat, could you keep your noisy noises to yourself Tu- Huh?" Bomba blinked up at him. "How'd you get here?"

Munk was too busy looking in the mirror to respond. The face that looked back at him was not his own. The face belonged to the Rum Tum Tugger.

"No." Munk repeated, because there really wasn't much else to say at that point. 

"What'd you mean 'No'?" Bomba rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, then abruptly paused and stared at her paw. 

Now, magical happenstances were not unexpected in a tribe of Jellicle cats. At last year's Jellicle Ball Munk had witnessed several events, large and small, that could only be explained by magical means. Coricopat and Tantomile were undoubtedly psychic, not to mention a certain Magical Mr. Mistoffelees, who despite being described as ‘vague and aloof’ was so painfully obviously magical it almost hurt to look at him. 

But this… waking up in Tugger's body, that was a new one for Munk. And he was not having it. If Munk was in Tugger's body then there was a very good chance that Tugger was in his body, and that was a prospect that sent a cold chill down his spine. 

"I have to find Misto." Munk said to himself, immediately ending up with a mouthful of fur again. How did Tugger keep from inadvertently eating his mane? 

"Wh… why's my fur all red?" Bomba whispered. "Tugger, what'd you do- why do I sound so girly?" 

Munk turned to look just in time to see Bomba's paws fly to her chest. Immediately her eyes snapped to his. Slowly Munk put the mirror down on the bed, trying to adopt his most comforting stance despite moving in a body that was not his own.

"What. Happened." Bomba ground out through sheer and utter terror.

"Bomba, I need you to -pft- to listen to me." Munk said as calmly as he could as he shoved Tugger's unruly mane out of his face.

Bomba bit her lip. "Why'd you call me that? That's not my name. I'm-" 

It was too late. Bomba's eyes met with her reflection in the mirror. Immediately she began to scream.

****

Clear on the other side of the junkyard, the Rum Tum Tugger woke after what felt like the best sleep of his life. Contentedly he kept his eyes closed, sinking into the soft blankets and drifting into a doze that could very well last the rest of the morning.

There was a warm presence beside him, stretched out along the entire length of his body with their face tucked into his shoulder. It was a deliciously comfortable position to be in. Now if only Tugger could remember who he went to bed with last night. His mind was slow to remember the events of the night before, bogged down by a slight headache that was lingering in the back of his head.

As if sensing his thoughts the unknown cat slung a black arm over his chest and rubbed up against him in a way that suggested that this cat was done sleeping and ready for a different horizontal activity. Now Tugger was very interested, once he figured out who he was sleeping with. He opened his eyes, finding himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

"I didn't think you'd be awake so soon, not after what we did last night." A voice purred in his ear.

The voice was familiar but not belonging to any cat that Tugger was inclined to share a bed with. Slowly his gaze traveled down the arm to its owner, eyes settling on a distinctive black and white face.

"Alonzo? What's going on-" Abruptly Tugger stopped. The voice that came out of him was not his.

"Very funny." Alonzo retaliated by licking a sensitive spot behind his ear. "The amnesia excuse only worked that one time-"

"No, wait, seriously, why are you here? What happened?" Tugger shoved Alonzo off of him, scrambling away to the other side of the bed. "Is something wrong?"

Alonzo's look of lust immediately was replaced with vague irritation. "I'm fine. What's wrong with you?"

"I asked you first. Why are you in my bed? Did Munk kick you out?" Something wasn't right, something was wrong with his voice, but Tugger could only handle one mystery at a time.

"You're starting to worry me. If this is a joke it isn't funny." Alonzo crawled closer, reaching out to touch him. 

Tugger drew back until he fell off the bed. While trying to untangle himself from the blankets he finally got a good look at his arms and legs, notably the silver fur that he was now sporting. His usual magnificent mane was also absent. Had someone shaved him in the middle of the night and dyed his fur?

"What." Tugger stared down at himself in fascinated horror. 

"What's wrong?" Alonzo's paw landed on his shoulder.

Tugger yelped and pulled away, tripping over his long tail and sprawling all over the floor. 

"Mirror, I need a mirror." Tugger insisted. Alonzo simply watched him as he floundered around. "Don't you have a mirror in here?"

"No, Munk, you gave yours to Tugger, remember?"

"Don't call me Munk!"

Alonzo flinched. "I don’t know what’s gotten into you but it’s not funny."

“You’re telling me. This is a little crazy even for me.” Tugger pawed through his brother’s things in a desperate attempt to find anything reflective. “Please tell me that you’re playing a prank. That for some reason you and Munk thought it would be funny to shave my mane off and dye my fur and pretend that I’m him.”

“What in the world- are you being serious?” Alonzo stared at him, visibly disturbed. “Are you ill?”

"No, no, I’m fine, I just need to find a mirror. I'm gonna go." Before Alonzo could say anything else Tugger gathered his long legs under him and ran outside.

Immediately he tripped over a smaller cat, sending them both sprawling into the dirt. 

“Hey!” Tumblebrutus protested, rolling into a crouch and giving him a sour look. “Watch where you’re- oh, Munk, I need to ask-”

“Sorry, buddy, didn’t see you there.” Tugger rather aggressively patted Tumble on the head. “Uh, you don’t happen to have a mirror on you, do you?”

“What? No.” Tumble batted Tugger’s paws away. “Have you seen-”

“Munk, where are you going?” Alonzo poked his head out his den. 

This was getting much more complicated than it needed to be. Tugger took the easiest option available and avoided any further conversation by making a hasty retreat. It would have been easier if he were retreating in a body he was used to. 

It also seemed that the silver fur was a beacon for any cat with a problem to come find him. Tugger only barely managed to dodge Jenny, Skimble, Demeter and Asparagus as the four of them converged on him with seemingly inane problems and concerns. Couldn’t they see that he wasn’t the Jellicle Protector?

Tumble in particular was hard to shake off, the tabby kitten seemingly determined to follow him to the end of the junkyard. Finally Tugger had had enough.

“What? What do you want?” Tugger asked, placing his hands on his hips and staring down at Tumble. “Now is a really bad time.”

“Yeah, well, I need to ask you something.” Tumble did his best to stand tall but he was still significantly shorter than Munkustrap’s body.

“Look, buddy, I’m not who you think I am.” The words sounded much more ominous than he meant. 

Suddenly Tugger was aware of just how much he towered over the kitten and crouched a little to lessen the intimidation. Tumble grabbed the end of his own tail and started to fiddle with it, a nervous habit that he and his brother both shared. Nevertheless he refused to budge.

“Fine.” Tugger sighed. “But first I gotta tell you something. And you’re probably not gonna believe it.”

“Munk, you’re acting really weird.”

“That’s the problem. I’m not Munk. It’s me, Tugger. Someone made me look like him.”

Tumble stared at him.

“Tumble, I swear that it’s true.” Tugger spread his arms out wide. “Do I really look like Munk to you?”

“Well... yeah....” Tumble slowly said, letting go of his tail in favor of slowly circling Tugger. “But you definitely aren’t acting like him. Who did this to you?”

“Beats me. I woke up like this in Munk’s bed.” Tugger cocked his hip out to one side and adopted his usual posture. Tumble’s eyes widened.

“That just looks wrong.” Tumble squeaked.

“What?”

“You’re definitely Tugger. No one else can stand like that.”

“Thank you for noticing. I was beginning to think that I was the only sane one here.” Tugger looked down at his fur again. “I mean, yeah, someone shaved my mane and dyed my fur silver and- and did something to my voice, but I’m still me. You can’t change my face just by dying it a different color.”

“Uh, have you seen your face?” Tumble asked. 

“No, I was looking for a mirror but you insisted on following me. Hey, what did you want to ask Munk anyways?”

“You know what, it can wait.” Tumble said. “Let’s, uh, let’s go find a mirror.”

*****

Back at Tugger’s den Munk had managed to get Bomba’s screaming under control, although she had devolved from shrieks to incoherent babbling. Munk wasn’t sure if it was an improvement.

“I’m- I’m- what happened to me oh Everlasting Cat I’m all tall and sexy and oh no- no- where’s my tail and my stripes and my- my- parts that I’m supposed to have and why do I have Bomba’s face-”

“You need to calm down. Right now.” Munk tried his best commanding voice but it just didn’t sound the same coming from Tugger’s mouth. “Just try and breathe.”

“You try and breathe! At least you still have all your bits where they’re supposed to be! And you’re you!” Bomba pointed accusingly at him. 

“Well, no, not really-”

“Did you do this? Tugger, what kinda prank are you trying to pull?” Bomba climbed to her feet and looked like she was about to take a swing at him. “How’d you get me to look like Bomba? How’d you do it?”

“It’s not a prank!” Munk protested. “And I’m not Tugger!” 

That got her attention. “Huh? But you-”

“I’m not Tugger. It’s me, Munkustrap.”

“Very funny.” Bomba scrunched up her nose. “But it’s clearly you, Tugger.”

“I swear upon all the Heaviside it’s me, Munk.”

“Oh yeah? Then if you’re Munk, tell me something only Munk would know.”

“What?” Munk resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. The headache from before was nearly gone but he could tell this conversation was rapidly bringing it back. “Why don’t you believe me? You’re clearly not who you’re supposed to be- hang on, who are you?”

Bomba immediately looked dejected. “You can’t tell?”

“No. And you apparently can’t tell that I’m not Tugger either.” Munk pointed out.

“Fair point.” Bomba shifted uncomfortably on her feet. “This is kinda embarrassing. If I told you you’d probably laugh at me.”

“I assure you that I’m just as embarrassed as you are.”

Bomba remained silent, grabbing her tail and nervously fiddling with it in an eerily familiar gesture. Munk knew he had seen a cat with a nervous tic like that before, but he couldn’t quite place who it had been. It certainly hadn’t been Bomba. Also, Munk was fairly sure that Bomba spoke a little more... eloquently, even when under a great deal of stress.

“Fine. You don’t have to tell me. But you have to believe that I’m Munkustrap. Because I am.” Munk gave her a stern look. “And you should believe me since the same body swapping scenario has clearly happened to you.”

“I dunno what to believe.” Bomba sighed. “But I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it either. But I’m fairly certain that Misto can fix it.”

“Misto? What’s he got to do with it?”

“Bomba, he’s a magical cat.” Munk said. “This is clearly a magical problem.”

“Hey, don’t call me Bomba. ‘s weird.”

“Then what should I call you, since you’re not willing to tell me your real name?”

Bomba remained silent.

Munk sighed again. “Look. You can come with me if you want or stay here. Either way I’m going to find Misto and try and fix this before it becomes even more of a problem.”

“I... I wanna stay here.” Bomba sat back down on the bed and curled her legs up to her chest. “I don’t want anyone to see me like this.”

Munk got the impression that whoever it was they were young. Probably one of the kittens then. Judging by how horrified they were by certain parts of Bomba’s anatomy they were probably originally male. So one of the male kittens perhaps. That narrowed it down quite a bit.

Before Munk could investigate further there was a rustle from outside. Cautiously he glanced back at Bomba, who was curled up in the bed, before stepping out to see who was making the noise.

"Hi Tugger!" An exuberant voice greeted him as a pair of arms suddenly hugged his leg, scaring the living daylights out of him.

"Argh!" Munk screamed, just barely catching himself before he took a swing at his attacker. "Oh, hello Etcetera."

Etcetera stared up at him, squeezing his leg tightly. She was not alone. Electra and Jemima were with her.

"I didn't mean to scare you." Etcetera said. "We were looking for you. Didja just wake up? Your mane is all messy!"

"Ah, well, congratulations, you found me." Munk's mind whirled as the queens giggled and circled around him. 

Should he tell them that he was trapped in Tugger's body? It would be the right, if not extremely confusing, thing to do, but the time spent explaining the embarrassing situation would be better used in finding Mistoffelees. Also, the longer he was in Tugger's body the longer Tugger was in his, and the thought of his brother having such an opportunity to gallivant about causing trouble in his skin was too much to bear. 

Gently but firmly Munk pried Etcetera off of his leg. Tugger's leg. Whoever's leg. This was getting complicated.

"Where are you going?" Jemima asked as Munk staggered away.

"Going to find-" Munk had to pause to spit his mane out of his mouth again. "-pft- find Misto."

"Oh, Misto's back at his house with his humans." Electra told him. "He left this morning."

Munk bit back the urge to scream, mainly due to the fact that if he did he would inevitably end up with more fur in his mouth. The frustration must have been apparent on his face because all three queens moved closer towards him with similar expressions of concern.

"Don't worry, he'll be back eventually." Etcetera said, trying to latch onto his leg again. "How about for now you show us some new dance moves?"

All three queens started giggling again, nodding enthusiastically. Munk knew that if he wanted to escape now was the best time.

"Sorry, but I have to -pft- go." Again with the insufferable mane. He was sorely tempted to cut it off. 

"But-" Whatever Etcetera said was lost as Munk literally ran away from the conversation, fueled by mild embarrassment and desperation. Hopefully Bomba would stay put and stay out of sight until he could return with Mistoffelees.

*****

With Tumble’s help Tugger eventually found a hubcap in a pile of junk that was shiny enough to see his reflection in. It took a long time of staring at Munk’s face before Tugger felt like he could comment.

“Well. Guess this is a little more than a shave and a dye job.” Even Tugger couldn’t figure out how someone could change the bone structure of his face without him noticing.

“Yeah.” Tumble nervously shuffled his feet. “Um. So you’re really not Munk?”

“No, I swear I’m one hundred percent Tugger. Well, if not in body, then definitely in mind.”

“How’d you end up looking like Munk then?”

“Beats me.”

“You don’t seem very upset.”

“Well, not much I can do about it right now. Got to keep a cool head until I can find someone to blame.” Tugger did not mention that he was on the brink of panic. The only thing keeping him sane was the thought that if someone had done this to him then they could undo it.

“That’s... one way of looking at it.” Tumble was still giving him a weird look.

“Hey, stop that. I can’t help how I look right now.”

“Sorry. It just looks really weird for Munk to be acting like you.”

“I don’t know how else to-” Their conversation was interrupted by a loud, high pitched screech of dismay. Both jumped and whirled around to find Bombalurina staring at them in pure, unbridled outrage.

“B- Bomba.” Tugger stammered, taken aback by the open hostility. “What brings you-”

“Hey, you lied to me!” Bomba yelled, pointing at him accusingly. “You said you were trapped in Tugger’s body but here you are!”

“What?” Tugger paused, mind suddenly racing. “Did you see my body?”

“I’m looking at it right now. You said you were coming back after things got fixed but I’m still stuck like this. What gives-” Bomba’s eyes snapped to Tumble. “Tumble?”

“Hi Bomba.” Tumble said, giving her a wary look. “You look... er, lovely today. As usual.”

Bomba’s face turned an interesting color. “Don’t look at me!”

“Huh?”

“I mean it! Look away!” Both Tugger and Tumble watched as Bomba tried to cover herself with her paws and tail. 

“Whoa, whoa, time out.” Tugger cut in. “Bomba, have you seen Munk- er, I mean, Tugger recently?”

“I dunno who I saw anymore.” Bomba shook her head, grabbing her tail and fiddling with it. “It’s too complicated. I dunno who anyone is.”

Tumble made a slightly strangled noise of surprise. Tugger looked at him questioningly but the kitten didn’t elaborate.

“Well, there’s some weird stuff going on.” Tugger said. “But if you’ve seen my- I mean, Tugger’s body, could you tell me where you saw it?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Bomba pointed in the direction of Tugger’s den. “Back at his den. Cettie and the others were there but I snuck out the back. Didn’t want them to see me either.”

She sounded so dejected that Tugger couldn’t possibly leave it alone. With his usual swagger he sauntered up to her and draped an arm over her shoulders, leaning in to give her an affectionate nuzzle. To his surprise she stiffened under his arm and turned a violent shade of red. 

Tumble coughed uncomfortably. “Still look like Munk.” 

“Bomba, you alright? You’re acting a little strange.” Tugger asked, ignoring the kitten.

“Everlasting Cat, I’m gonna die.” Bomba said dramatically, covering her face with her paws. “I thought Munk- er, Tugger, no, wait, Munk- finding me like this was bad, but now this is so much worse.”

“Um, Bomba?” Tumble asked, edging closer to the two. “Can I ask you something?”

“No.” Bomba quickly said.

“Did you say earlier that you were ‘stuck like this’?”

“No! I didn’t say anything!”

“Yeah you did.” Tumble crossed his arms over his chest.

“Did not!” Bomba immediately mirrored his pose.

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“Shut up, Tumble, I did not!”

To Tugger’s horror Bomba ducked out from under his arm and pounced on Tumble, sending them both into a sprawl. Tumble let out a startled shriek and tried to get away but Bomba quickly pinned him to the ground.

“Whoa.” Bomba grinned triumphantly. “I’m like, super good at wrestling now. Must be ‘cause I'm taller.”

“No, I just don’t wanna fight a queen.” Tumble gave her a suspicious glare. “And there’s only one cat that’d end an argument with me by picking a fight.”

Bomba suddenly looked nervous. Quickly she got off of Tumble, backing away from him. The tom wasted no time in following her.

“I’ve been looking for you all morning!” Tumble said. “What happened to you? Why’re you all like- like this?”

“Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Bomba grabbed her tail again and wrung it between her paws.

“Don’t try and play dumb.” Tumble stomped forward. “I know it’s you, Pounce.”

Tugger, who had been watching the exchange with interest, felt that this new development was worth commenting on. Unfortunately he was rendered speechless by the revelation and could only watch as Tumble backed Bomba into a corner.

“I’m- I’m not Pounce, I’m- I’m Bomba!” Bomba said. “You’re wrong!”

“Oh yeah, then how come you’re doing that to your tail?” Tumble pointed. “And I’m pretty sure that the real Bomba wouldn’t argue with me, let alone try to wrestle me when proven wrong. Also you talk just like Pounce does.”

Dejectedly Bomba hung her head. “You notice too much.”

“Well, you’re my brother, it’s my job to notice.” Tumble said.

“Hold on, so you’re really Pounce?” Tugger finally asked.

“Yeah.” Bomba’s face was the perfect picture of embarrassment. “I didn’t want you guys to know. It’s really embarrassing.”

“Well, I’m not Munk, I’m Tugger.” Tugger said, patting the red queen’s shoulder. “So we can both be embarrassed.”

“You really aren’t Munk?” Pounce peered at him suspiciously. Now that the truth was out it was very clear to see that while this cat looked like Bomba, she acted and spoke just like Pouncival. It was truly a disturbing sight.

“I promise you I’m not Munk.” Tugger confirmed. “But I take it you’ve talked to him recently?”

“Yeah. He’s stuck in your body, I guess. Said he was gonna go find Misto or something. Thought maybe he had something to do with it.”

“That makes a lot of sense.” Tugger nodded. “If anyone’s capable of some outrageous magic it’d be him.”

“But how is he gonna get you guys back to normal? I don’t want to have Bomba for a brother.” Tumble said.

“I don’t wanna be Bomba either. I’m supposed to look at her from my eyes, not hers!” Pounce shivered. “’s not natural.”

“You’re telling me.” Tugger said. “At least I know now that Munk is running around in my body.”

“D’you think Bomba’s... oh no.” Pounce whimpered. “Bomba’s in my body.”

“Oh. Oh no.” Tumble whispered. “Oh Pounce.”

“This is the worst day of my entire life. My entire existence.” Pounce groaned. “Just send me to the Heaviside Layer now. I’m done with this life.”

“Hey, don’t be so dramatic. Despair is really not a good look on Bomba.” Tugger said. 

“We gotta fix this. I can’t live like this.” 

“We will. I’m not happy to be like this either.” Tugger sighed. “Let’s go back to my place and try to come up with a plan. Maybe Munk will be there too. It’s better than standing out in the open waiting for someone to discover us.”


	2. Chaotic Conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who's ready for the next chapter? There's still at least two more to go after this one, so hope you're ready!

Alonzo was having a bad morning. After a pleasant night with his mate he woke to a complete shift in Munk's attitude towards him, a shift to the point where Alonzo had been certain that someone took Munk's mind and personality out of his body and replaced it with someone else's. How else could he explain the sudden change in behavior? 

The alternative was that Munk suddenly decided he didn't want to be around him anymore. That was a thought that Alonzo did not want to dwell on. It would be better to find Munk and talk it out.

Trying to find Munk was surprisingly difficult. He wasn't in any of his usual hangouts, or out along his regular patrols, and even the few spots Alonzo was sure only he and Munk knew about yielded no results. It was as if the silver tabby had simply disappeared. 

Luckily another cat that knew Munk well enough was around. Tugger was sitting on top of an old car and looked like he was having a fight with his mane. It also looked like he was losing.

Alonzo took a moment to watch while Tugger muttered quiet curses to himself as he desperately tried to flatten his wildly out of control mane. Several times it wound up in his mouth and in his eyes, promoting him to spin around in a circle in a futile attempt to escape what was directly connected to his own body.

"Blasted- pft- mane!" Tugger finally yelled up at the sky. "How the hell does he manage-"

Alonzo coughed. Tugger took one look at him and quickly turned away. Alonzo didn't give him time to escape.

"Tugger, hold on a moment." Alonzo jumped up next to him on the car. "I want to ask you something."

Tugger nervously cleared his throat. "I'd love to speak with you but I really need to-"

"It'll just take a moment. It's about Munk."

"About me- er, about Munk?" That made Tugger pause. 

"Yes. He's been acting really odd today. And I wanted to know if you knew anything about it."

"Odd how?" Tugger narrowed his eyes in suspicion. 

Briefly Alonzo was reminded of Munk when he suspected Tugger of doing something he didn't approve of. It would have been amusing to see how similar the brothers acted if Alonzo wasn't trying to have a serious conversation with one of the least serious cats he knew. At least for now Tugger seemed to be completely focused on the conversation.

"This morning Munk practically threw me out of our den and didn't want me to call him by his name." Alonzo waited for the incoming sarcastic response, some silly joke about Munk being too uptight for his own good, but it didn't come.

Instead Tugger's mouth drew down in an uncharacteristic, disapproving frown. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, nothing like that. He didn't attack me-"

"Did he try to do anything… physical with you?" Tugger asked, looking vaguely ill.

"Tugger, no matter how much you pry, I am not discussing that part of my relationship with Munk with you." Alonzo sighed. "But no. I barely even got to hug him before he freaked out."

"Thank the Everlasting Cat." Tugger let out a sigh of relief, moving closer to protectively rub up against Alonzo. "You don't deserve that. Even though he's my brother I would kill him if he tried anything. And I would never try to push you away."

To Alonzo's horror Tugger let out a purr and nuzzled the side of his head, bringing their faces in close to one another.

"Excuse me?" Alonzo couldn't believe what was happening. "Are you seriously trying to kiss me?"

"Well, of cou-" Abruptly Tugger stopped, seeming to realize what he was about to do. "Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'." Alonzo pulled away from him and jumped down off the car. "Forget it. Clearly whatever's going on with Munk has got nothing on you."

"Wait, Lonz, it's-"

"I'll figure it out myself." Alonzo left before Tugger could reply.

*****

Pouncival was miserable. It had already been shaping up to be a strange day before he realized that he had been shoved into the body of his not-so-secret crush, and now things could only get worse from there. He had parts that weren't his, parts that should have been his but weren't there anymore, and every time he moved he was made firmly aware of his unfortunate situation.

Tumble and Munk-no, wait, it was Tugger in Munk's body- didn't seem to understand his plight. In fact, they seemed much more interested in finding out where Tugger's body had wandered off to. The two had hauled Pounce into Tugger's den to discuss their next course of action.

"So first off, I think it's best if we keep this under the radar for now and try to act natural." Tugger said, automatically trying to fluff his non-existent mane and hitting himself in the face.

"Uh huh." Tumble raised an eyebrow at him. 

"I mean it. I don't want to have to explain this to the whole junkyard. Better to pretend that nothing's wrong and try and get it fixed before someone finds out." 

"I agree." Pounce crawled up on Tugger's bed and pulled the blankets up to his nose.

Tumble sympathetically patted his brother through the blankets. "Don't worry, Pounce. As much as I would love to tell everyone that you are now the sexiest queen in the junkyard, I respect you too much to infringe on your personal business."

Tugger snorted. "Yeah, right."

"Okay, okay. I really wanna tell the others but no one would believe me." Tumble shrugged.

"Let's hope that you're right." Tugger studied himself in the mirror.

Pounce watched Munkustrap's body preen himself. It was a sight that he never thought he'd see. It was also a sight that he was fine with never seeing again.

"So are you gonna find Misto?" Pounce asked.

"Absolutely. Especially if Munk's already looking for him." Tugger confirmed. 

"Where are you gonna start looking?" Tumble asked.

"We are starting our search in the junkyard, obviously, and then, if we can't find him here then we'll go to where his humans live."

"Sounds good- wait, what do you mean by 'we'?" Pounce squawked. "I'm not going back out there!"

"Come on, Pounce, we need your help." Tugger pulled on the blankets.

"No! I don't want to be exposed!"

"You really don't look that bad, Pounce." Tumble said. "I mean, yeah, it's real weird seeing Bomba flail around like you usually do-"

"Excuse me but I do not flail." Pouncival gave his brother a deeply offended look. 

"There, that's a face Bomba would make." Tugger said reassuringly. "Just keep making that face and no one will suspect it's you."

"Besides, the sooner we start looking the sooner you can be back in your body." Tumble said brightly.

"Oh, yeah, that's true." Pounce rubbed his nose. "I really want that."

"Hey, speaking of, where is your body?" Tugger asked.

"Huh?"

"Well, if Munk and I swapped bodies, then Bomba should be in yours. But where is she? We haven't seen your body anywhere."

Pounce wracked his brain for the answer. He never had to consider where his body might go without him.

"Uh. I dunno where she is."

"Where was the last place you remember being?" Tugger was starting to look impatient, giving up his attempts to fluff up Munk's fur into a pseudo mane.

"Well that's easy." Tumble interjected. "You fell asleep during one of Gus's stories and I carried you back home."

Pounce bit his lip. That was true. Gus was telling them something about his days in the theatre and he could barely keep his eyes open. But that wasn't the last thing he had done that night. 

"Pounce?" Tugger leaned over him, looking very intimidating with Munk's face.

"Uh, well… I might've… left to go somewhere else when Tumble was asleep."

"What?" Tumble exclaimed. "Where on earth did you go?"

"It doesn't matter! Bomba's probably walked my body off somewhere else anyways!" Pounce threw the blankets over his head. This was now officially the most embarrassing day of his life.

"Look, Pounce, this is a safe space." Tugger said. "Whatever you were doing last night, no matter how embarrassing, you can tell us."

"Yeah. I promise not to make fun of you." Tumble lifted up the blanket to look at him.

Pounce sighed. "Fine. My life is over anyways. I was with Misto."

"What were the two of you doing out in the middle of the night?" Tugger asked incredulously.

"I don't wanna talk about it. And I swear what we were doing is not important." Pounce insisted. "But last thing I remember was being in the junkyard. I asked Misto to show me some of his magic and then I woke up here. With you. Well, not you. Guess it was Munk. But it was your body."

Tumble looked skeptical but remained silent on the matter for now. Tugger looked thoughtful.

"Let's split up and search the junkyard." Tugger eventually said. "Pounce, you stay around here in case either Munk or Bomba shows up. Tumble, you check around the tire and Jenny's den. If someone spots you just say you're looking for Pounce or Tugger. That way if someone spots either of our bodies they can tell you."

"This is gonna be weird." Tumble sighed. "But okay."

"Excellent. I'll swing through the outskirts of the junkyard and try to stay out of sight. Let's meet back here in a couple of hours." Tugger placed his hands on his hips and gave them both his best winning smile.

Pounce cringed. "Don't do that. It's really weird."

Tugger glanced over in the mirror and immediately dropped the look. "Everlasting Cat, you're right. The sooner I'm back to my normal self the better."

*****

Demeter had spent the better part of the morning looking for Bombalurina before she finally had to call defeat. The red queen was nowhere to be found, at least not in any of her usual spots, and no one else had seen her around. Munk himself was oddly missing, leaving Demeter to head over to the main part of the junkyard to regroup and come up with a new plan. Maybe Munk had managed to slip past her and would be on his usual spot on the tire.

Demeter did not find Munk on the tire, but, rather, found the familiar shape of Alonzo slumped on top. Alonzo was stretched out in the sun, looking oddly dejected and not at all like his usual self. It was enough to make Demeter pause in her wanderings to check it out.

"Hello, Demeter." Alonzo said, flicking an ear in her direction but not moving when she jumped up next to him.

The golden queen gently nuzzled his shoulder before settling down next to him, content to join him in watching over the junkyard. 

"Something wrong?" She asked when it was apparent he wasn't going to be forthcoming about what was causing his current mood.

"Do you… do you think Munk's happy with me?" Alonzo asked, expression carefully kept blank.

"What? Why would you ask that? Of course he's happy with you." Demeter rubbed up against his side. 

"This morning he pushed me away and yelled at me. Told me not to call him Munk. Practically ran out the door to get away from me."

"Oh, Lonz, I don't think he meant that." Demeter murmured. 

"Yeah, well, he certainly acted like it." Alonzo sniffed and pointedly looked across the junkyard. "I even asked Tugger what he thought. You know what he did?"

"I can only imagine."

"He hit on me."

"Are you sure he wasn't just acting like his usual self?" Demeter rubbed Alonzo's back to comfort him. 

"He tried to kiss me." 

"Oh."

"Yeah." 

"That must have been surprising."

"That doesn't even begin to describe it. Both of them are acting weird today. Do you think something's going on?"

"I can't imagine what could be wrong. But maybe." Demeter nervously twitched her tail. "You know, I can't find Bomba anywhere. We were supposed to meet up today but she's missing."

Alonzo let out a suspicious hum. "I don't like this. There's too much going on for it to be a coincidence."

Before Demeter could respond a patch tabby kitten burst out of the nearby pile of junk, somersaulting across the ground and bouncing up onto his feet. Tumble dusted himself off, grumbling under his breath, then noticed that he had an audience and froze.

"Something wrong, Tumble?" Alonzo asked.

"Uh, no. Just… going about my usual day. As usual." Tumble said, left eye twitching.

"Where's Pounce?" Demeter asked. "He's usually with you."

"Is he? Er, no, he's not always with me." Tumble was starting to sweat. "He's… ah, you know what, I think there's something I need to be, um, I mean, somewhere I gotta do, er, bye!"

The two cats watched him run off, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake.

"There is definitely something going on." Alonzo said. 

"Absolutely." Demeter agreed. 

It wasn't long before their attention was captured by another group of kittens. Etcetera, Electra and Jemima made a beeline for the tire, stopping at the base and waving up at Alonzo and Demeter.

"Hi! Have you seen Munk around?" Etcetera asked.

"No, I haven't." Alonzo said, voice tight. "Why?"

"We wanna ask him for advice about Tugger." Electra said.

"Yeah, Tugger seems kinda stressed today. He needs some cheering up." Jemima added.

"Didn't seem stressed to me when I saw him earlier." Alonzo muttered.

"We haven't seen him over here." Demeter cut in before Alonzo could elaborate. "Have you seen Bomba?"

"No, sorry. Is she acting weird too?" Etcetera asked.

"Not that I know of. But there's a lot of suspicious behavior going on today."

"Besides Tugger?" Electra looked concerned.

"Yes. Munk's been acting odd too." That's all Alonzo clearly wanted to say regarding the subject.

"What do you think's going on?" Jemima asked, eyes wide. 

"It could always be Macavity." Demeter said. "He's broken every human law, I know he'd be capable of something like this."

"Every human law?" Electra squeaked.

"What else can he do?" Etcetera asked.

"Didn't you hear the song Bomba and I sang at the ball last year?" Demeter felt slightly put out at the thought of no one remembering the song. She and Bomba had worked for a long time on the choreography.

"Um, well, Tugger disappeared during that part and there was a lot going on…." Etcetera at least had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Can you sing it again? It'd really help!" Jemima bounced enthusiastically.

"Okay. But only so you can understand the gravity of the situation." Demeter took up her position in front of her impromptu audience. 

"Any time you're ready, Demeter!" Etcetera encouraged her. Electra and Jemima nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, I can do the first part just fine, but it's a little weird to do the rest by myself." Demeter admitted. 

"It's fine, I can do it." Alonzo unexpectedly joined her. 

"You can?" The three kittens and Demeter chorused.

"Sure. I helped Bomba rehearse a couple times when you and Jenny went on that trip with Skimble." Alonzo shrugged. “She asked so nicely I couldn’t refuse.”

"Huh." Demeter decided not to argue.

Alonzo really did know the routine. It was odd hearing him sing Bomba's lines and mirror her signature sultry hip swivels, but with his help Demeter was able to properly inform Etcetera and Jemima of Macavity's heinous acts. When the routine was over Etcetera, Electra and Jemima applauded enthusiastically. To everyone's surprise Tumble had appeared sometime during the song and was also clapping along. He stopped guiltily when everyone turned to look at him.

"What? I heard you singing. Thought I'd check it out." Tumble shrugged. "Why're you singing about Macavity?"

"Something funny's going on in the junkyard." Alonzo said, giving Tumble a suspicious look.

"Oh." Tumble tucked his tail around himself. "And what makes you think that?"

"Tugger didn't want to hang out with us. Said he was looking for Misto." Etcetera said. "And he was acting all… not Tugger."

"Yeah. He was standing all wrong. And he almost punched Cettie in the face." Jemima added.

"He what?" Alonzo bristled. 

"He didn't punch me!" Etcetera said. "I just scared him! Which is weird since he's always expecting us to be around."

"And then when we told him that Misto went home he looked really upset and left." Electra said.

"Wait, Misto's not here?" Tumble looked unusually alarmed. "But where'd he go?"

"To his human's house." Jemima told him.

"Great!" Tumble shouted, throwing his paws up in the air. "Just great!"

Both Alonzo and Demeter zeroed in on the outburst. The girls giggled between themselves.

"Um." Tumble froze with his paws in the air. "I, er, I mean, that's great for him. To have a home."

"Hm." Alonzo twitched his tail but decided that staring at Tumble would elicit the best response.

Demeter tried a gentler approach. "Tumble, is there something you want to tell us? Something about Misto, maybe? Or Pounce?"

"Ah, nope. Nothing to talk about." Tumble slowly backed away from her.

"Hmm." Alonzo's hum held a hint of a growl.

Demeter continued her advance. "Tumble, you know you can tell us anything. You won't be in trouble."

Tumble tried to move backwards and sideways at the same time, turning himself into a bit of a pretzel. 

"Hmmmm." It was amazing how menacingly Alonzo could hum. 

Tumble yipped and did a complicated somersault, winding up momentarily in a handstand, then flipped up onto his feet and took off.

"Oh no you don't-" Alonzo took off after him.

Demeter sighed. So much for trying to find Bomba.

*****

Meanwhile, completely oblivious to Tumble's plight, Tugger was busy trying to shove his way into any pile of junk that looked like a place Pouncival's body would be able to fit into. He hated to admit it but Munk was deceptively tall, making it hard to fit in spots that Tugger was sure his original body could manage. At least Munk had incredibly strong leg muscles from crouching all the time.

"Munk!" A familiar voice shouted excitedly. 

Tugger barely had time to look up before Jemima shot through his legs. The sudden intrusion was startling enough to knock him off balance, especially when Jemima came back around and hunkered down between his feet as if he were some furry shelter. It would have been endearing if Tugger wasn't busy trying to avoid stepping on her.

"Hey, Jemi, now's really not a good time to talk." Tugger straightened up to try and get his balance.

"Munk, Lonz says- urk!" Jemima squeaked as Tugger accidentally trapped her head in a leg lock.

"Oh! Oh no, hold on-" Tugger did a complicated dance and wound up almost cartwheeling off of her. "I'm sorry, you knocked me off balance, sitting there like that."

"But I always sit here!" 

Tugger shook his head. "Well, let's just leave my legs alone for now. Feeling a little unused to them today."

It wasn't entirely a lie. He wasn't used to the legs in this body. While it was tempting to tell Jemima the truth about the body swap it would probably bring more confusion than help. And Tugger was on a mission to fix the problem as soon as possible.

"Munk!"

This time it was Etcetera who gunned for the spot between his legs. Tugger didn't have time to make room for her before she crashed headlong into his knees and knocked them both to the ground on top of Jemima. Electra, who was running behind Etcetera, skidded to a halt next to his prone body.

"Argh! Cettie!" Tugger shouted. "What gives?"

"I thought you were ready! You always stand with your legs apart!" Etcetera climbed off of him and helped Jemima to her feet, leaving Tugger lying on the ground.

The pile of junk by his head rustled and Tumble slowly shuffled into view, peering down at him rather guiltily. "Uh, hey, Tu- Munk."

"Tumble." Tugger picked himself off the ground, widening his stance in case any other wayward kittens decided to fight for the apparently coveted spot. Is that why Munk was always standing like that?

"Er, did you happen to find Pounce's bod- Pounce yet?" Tumble whispered.

"No, buddy, not yet. I've been a little busy."

"Munk! Lonz says you've been acting weird today." Etcetera said. "Are you feeling okay?"

Tumble snorted. Tugger half-heartedly slapped him upside the head.

"Hey! That is not a Munk thing to do." Tumble grumbled.

"Believe me, even Munk would've been tempted." Tugger muttered. "Hey, Cettie, what did Lonz say exactly?"

"It wasn't just Lonz, Demeter thinks something's wrong too. She can't find Bomba." Etcetera said. "And Tugger's being all weird. It's a weird day."

"Oh. Well…." Tugger exchanged a look with Tumble before standing a little taller and doing his best impression of his brother's calm yet commanding voice. "Things may be a bit strange today, but it is… uh, it is a full moon after all."

"A full moon?" Jemima tilted her head to one side. Tumble sank his face into his paws. 

"Yep. Uh, yes. Yes, it's a full moon tonight. Usually makes things a little weirder. Right, Tumble?" Tugger nudged the kitten in question.

"Oh yeah. Real weird." Tumble muttered. 

"You know what's weird?" Alonzo's voice echoed across the junkyard as he appeared from seemingly out of nowhere, slinking down an overturned couch and giving both toms a murderous look.

Tumble shrieked and ran between Tugger's legs, cowering behind him on pure instinct. Etcetera, Electra and Jemima wisely decided to leave the area. Even Tugger felt somewhat intimidated. 

"What's weird is how you and your brother have been acting today." Alonzo pointed accusingly at Tugger, who remembered at the last minute that he was supposed to be Munkustrap, and, by association, Alonzo's mate.

Tugger was so not ready to have this conversation. Having a lover's quarrel with anyone wasn't high on his to do list, let alone have one on his brother's behalf with an angry Alonzo. This was a cat who willingly leapt at Macavity after he took out the Jellicle Protector, for Everlasting's sake. 

"First you shove me off of you and treat me like I'm nobody after we-" Alonzo paused, glancing at Tumble. "- uh, after last night's activities. And then you tell me not to call you 'Munk'. And after that you run off, leaving me to try and find you-"

"Look, Lonz, I get that you're upset-"

"I am not done." There was a wild look in Alonzo's eyes. Tugger shut up. "Then I go and try to find you and who do I find instead?"

Both Tugger and Tumble wisely remained silent.

"I find your brother." Alonzo hissed. "And for once he was agreeable to talk to. Or so I thought."

"That's rather harsh." Tugger muttered. Tumble sank his claws into his leg to shut him up. 

"I asked Tugger if he knew what was going on with you and you know what he did?" Alonzo's tail lashed back and forth in frustration. "He tried to kiss me! And not like some flirty gesture that he usually does, oh no. I can handle that. This was like he thought I was his mate!"

Both Tugger and Tumble remained silent. Really, there wasn't much Tugger could think to say that wouldn't make the situation worse. It was quickly apparent that Alonzo was not done.

"Don't think I don't see you there, Tumble." Alonzo turned on the kitten. "You've been acting suspicious all morning. Not to mention you blatantly lied to my face and ran away when Demeter and I asked what was going on."

Tumble cowered between Tugger's legs. It was too pathetic a sight for Tugger to stand idly by any longer.

"You're right." Tugger said, trying to make Munk's face look calming and sympathetic but probably looking a little more manic than he would have liked. "Tumble knows what's going on with me. I asked him to keep quiet about it."

Alonzo's eye twitched. "I'm only going to ask you once, Munk. What is going on?"

Great. If Tugger didn't navigate this conversation carefully then Munk would soon find himself a bachelor. And then Munk would surely kill him if Alonzo didn't do it first. Tumble dug his claws into Tugger's legs again.

"Ow! Cut it out!" Tugger hissed.

"You gotta tell him the truth. Or Lonz is gonna kill us." Tumble hissed back. 

Alonzo crossed his arms and started to tap his foot. 

Tugger sighed and rolled his eyes towards the sky. This was only going to get more awkward from here. But maybe, just maybe, if Alonzo believed him, then they could use him to help suss out where either Munk, Misto or Bomba had disappeared to.

"Alright. I'll tell you. But we need to go somewhere more private. Er, honey." Tugger threw out the pet name as a last ditch attempt to pacify him. 

Both Alonzo and Tumble stared at him. Maybe that was the wrong nickname Munk used?

"Sorry. Let's just go." Tugger picked Tumble up by his waist and led Alonzo back towards his den. Hopefully Pounce would still be there to back up the unbelievable story he was about to tell.

*****

To say that Munk was not having much luck in his day was an understatement. After his disastrous conversation with Alonzo on the tire he was fairly certain that his mate was going to kill him. That or kill Tugger. Maybe both. A huge part of him wished that he could just sweep Alonzo up into his arms and explain everything that was going on, but he knew that if he tried to do such a thing while still in Tugger’s body he would wind up face first in the nearest trash can. Better to find Misto and then try to make amends.

First Munk had combed the junkyard to ensure that Etcetera and the others were telling the truth about Misto not being around. So far as he could tell they were right. His next step was to retrieve whoever was stuck in Bomba’s body and head to Misto’s house, hopefully running into Tugger and, hopefully, his own body along the way. The absurdity of Munk literally losing himself in the junkyard he knew like the back of his paw was not lost on him.

As he approached Tugger’s den he could hear raised voices. Carefully he crept up to the side of the structure to listen.

“You can’t possibly expect me to believe this!” Alonzo yelled, sounding painfully frustrated.

“It’s true, I don’t know how else to explain it.” It was disturbing for Munk to hear his own voice being spoken out loud without his permission.

“It’s true, Lonz.” That was Tumble. "Pounce, tell him."

“I don’t wanna tell him.” Bomba said sullenly. “You shouldn’t’ve told him anything. You betrayed me.”

“Oh come on, I didn’t betray you.” Tumble’s footsteps shuffled towards Bomba’s voice. “Come here, Pounce, I’m- hey!”

The unmistakable sounds of a scuffle met his ears. Something smashed on the ground. 

“Knock it off!” Munk heard himself yell. 

Alonzo yelped painfully. That was enough for Munk. With a burst of speed he ran into Tugger’s den, skidding to an immediate halt at the sight before him.

Alonzo was fine, although Tumble was currently perched on his shoulders in an attempt to get away from Bomba, who was being held back by a very familiar silver tabby. Bomba’s face was a perfect imitation of Pounce’s indignant outrage. One of Tugger's mirrors had been smashed on the floor.

“What in the world is going on?” Munk asked.

“Lemme go, Tugger, I’m gonna thump him.” Bomba growled at Munk’s body. 

Everyone else turned to look at Munk, who was still standing in the doorway. 

“Oh, great. Let’s just add to the party.” Alonzo growled. Tumble slid off Alonzo’s head and bounded over to him.

“Please tell me you’re Munk.” The kitten begged, staring up into Munk’s eyes. “We need a voice of reason.”

“Excuse me, I think I’m being quite reasonable here.” Munk’s body said, holding Bomba back with one arm and placing a hand on his hip with the other. It was such a distinctive pose that Munk knew exactly who was in his body.

“Tugger, forgive me for saying so, but we both know that’s not true.” Munk said.

“Hey, he can tell that I’m me.” Tugger said, shooting Alonzo an annoyed look. “Don’t know why you’re having such a hard time with this.”

“Don’t look at him that way.” Munk stepped closer to Alonzo, who was looking back and forth between them with increasing uncertainty. “At least not with my face.”

“Well, then make him believe that you’re you and I’m me. We’ve been running around in circles here and I’m exhausted.” Tugger threw Bomba back onto the bed. Bomba hissed and curled up into a ball to sulk. “It’s hard enough trying to keep an eye on Tumble and Pounce here.”

“So you’re Pounce?” Munk asked, raising an eyebrow at Bomba’s unusual appearance.

“Hi, Munk.” Pounce sighed. “You got me.”

“Will someone please, for all that is Everlasting, please tell me what’s wrong with everybody.” Alonzo said, looking one minute away from storming out and never coming back. “I just want the truth.”

“I don’t know what exactly has been said, but I’m afraid that Tugger and I have switched bodies.” Munk gently explained, careful not to touch Alonzo as he drew closer lest he aggravate his mate even further. “It happened this morning. I woke up in Tugger’s body and he woke up in mine. I have a strong inclination that Misto’s magic is involved.”

“And Pounce and Bomba got swapped too.” Tumble added. Alonzo looked over at the red queen, who was nervously fiddling with her tail in a very Pounce- like manner.

“It has to be a joke.” Alonzo was stubborn. “A really bad joke.”

“It’s true.” Pounce sighed. “Even I can’t make something like this up.”

Munk wracked his brain for any way to prove that it really was him. Suddenly he had an idea.

“I can tell you something that only Munk would know.” Munk said.

“Oh? And what could that possibly be?” Alonzo frowned.

“I can tell you what we did together last night.” Munk tried to sound nonchalant but he could feel his face starting to turn red.

“Excuse me, but don’t look at him that way.” Tugger said, echoing Munk’s previous words. “At least not with my face.”

Alonzo narrowed his eyes in disbelief. “Tell me.”

Munk leaned forward and whispered in Alonzo’s ear. He was definitely blushing now. A faint pink tinge flushed Alonzo’s cheeks.

“Alright.” Alonzo said, ignoring the mix of curious and mortified looks Tumble, Pounce and Tugger were giving him. “I believe you.”

“What in the world did you say to him?” Tugger asked incredulously.

“None of your business.” Both Alonzo and Munk said simultaneously.

“So you’re really Munk. And you’re Tugger.” Alonzo looked between them again. “And Bomba’s Pounce. So where’s Bomba?”

Pounce groaned. “We don’t know. And I don’t know. And we don’t have to know. You know?”

“We’ll work on finding her when we find Misto.” Tugger said. 

“I was about to head out to find him. Electra told me that Misto is at his home with his humans.” Munk told him. “It would be best if we all went together.”

“Lead the way, fearless leader.” Tugger said, vaguely mocking his brother with a salute.

“Please don’t do that.” Munk sighed. “Just… I’d appreciate it if you walked normally. And not with as much sauntering as you normally do.”

“Well then stop walking around in my body like you have a stick up your-”

“Please, just both of you be quiet and let’s go.” Alonzo rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long trip.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw a recording of the stage show where Alonzo ended up dancing along with Bombalurina and Demeter during Macavity's song and decided to include it in this chapter. Very interesting stuff. Stay tuned for part three!


	3. Haphazard Happenings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couldn't quite get everything I wanted all into one chapter, so there will be one more after this one!

Demeter was having a peculiar afternoon. She was still looking for Bomba and still puzzling over Alonzo’s description of both Tugger and Munk’s strange behaviors. All were factors that were contributing to her growing sense of unease, instilling her with the feeling that something was definitely wrong in the junkyard. Now she just had to figure out what it was. If Alonzo hadn’t taken off after Tumble she would have asked him to help her investigate.

Speaking of the black and white cat, she could hear Alonzo’s voice coming from around the back of Tugger’s den. He didn’t sound nearly as aggravated as before, instead talking in a low, comforting voice meant to put whoever he was talking to at ease.

“Honestly, it could be worse.” Alonzo was saying. “You could look like someone else. At least you’re still a tom.”

“Are you saying that to make me or yourself feel better?” Tugger’s voice responded. 

Demeter froze. Earlier Alonzo had told her of Tugger’s unwanted advances towards him, yet here they were, together at his den, apparently over the earlier transgressions. Quickly she ducked down to stay out of sight, peering around the corner to get a better look.

Oh, Alonzo was definitely over what Tugger had done. The two were standing very close to one another, Alonzo bridging the gap between them and rubbing his head alongside Tugger’s shoulder. Tugger sighed and returned the gesture, the usually suave, carefree cat looking unusually upset.

Alonzo would have replied to the previous question were it not for the fact that his face was buried in Tugger’s mane. Rather abruptly he pushed himself away from Tugger and gave him longing, regretful look. 

"Sorry, this is just really weird." Alonzo said, rubbing a paw over his ears. "I know it's you, but you just look and smell so much like Tugger."

"I know." Tugger groaned. "I thought I could put it out of my mind but it's too much."

Demeter stared, mind unable to process what she was seeing and hearing. Was Alonzo having a secret affair with Tugger and now having regrets? Did Tugger forget that he was supposed to look and smell like himself? Where was-

Right on cue Munkustrap interrupted the bewildering scene, the silver tabby himself making an appearance and startling the two toms. Demeter could only watch as the Jellicle Protector, a tom of dignified poise, stood with a hand on his hip and slouched in a way that usually only Tugger could achieve.

"Hey, you two better not be doing anything with my body." Munk, the usual voice of reason and wisdom, stared at them, a disgusted yet intrigued look on his face. "Wow, this is really, really weird."

"Please don't do that." Tugger rolled his eyes up towards the sky.

"Do what?"

"Make that face with my face. Or stand like that. It just looks wrong."

"Well, stop trying to mate with Alonzo while wearing my body." Munk pointed accusingly at the two. The fact that Alonzo was being so unusually familiar with Tugger in the first place didn’t seem to bother him.

"We were not going to do that!" Tugger fixed his brother with an indignant look.

Alonzo groaned. “This is too much. I’m going to leave you two to figure this out.”

Demeter decided to leave before she was spotted. Obviously something strange was going on between the three. Bomba would have insisted on sticking around to find out just what was happening, but Demeter honestly just wanted to find her friend and forget what she saw. Better to let the three toms sort out… whatever it was that was going on between them.

As if the universe was sensing her thoughts Demeter heard the voice of the one cat she had spent the better part of the morning searching for.

“I don’t know anything!” Bombalurina’s voice came from inside Tugger’s den. “I was just asking Misto to show me some- some stuff and then I woke up like this. Nothing else happened and I don’t know how he did it or how to fix it.”

“What kind of ‘stuff’ did you ask Misto to show you?” Tumblebrutus asked before Demeter could wonder just what Bomba had been doing with Misto.

“Just- just- it’s not important!” Bomba shrieked.

“Excuse me, I think it’s very important.” Tumble argued. “Especially since you might very well be the cause of all of this!”

“Oh yeah? Well- well- I’m a queen now, so you gotta treat me like one.” Bombalurina stomped out of Tugger’s den, arms crossed and glowering at the sunny sky. “And I don’t gotta tell you anything unless I feel like it.”

“No you’re not. Well, uh, I mean, yeah you are a queen for now, but I’m not gonna treat you different. You wanted me to act like you’re normal!” Tumble shouted, sticking his head out the front door.

“What about all of this-” Bomba gestured to all of herself. “- is normal? At least you still have all your parts where you’re supposed to be. I’ve got-”

“I don’t wanna hear what you got. Just tell me what you and Misto were doing last night!”

Demeter stared. Tumble rarely, if ever, raised his voice in anger, and even then he usually reserved his yelling for his brother. Never had he addressed Bomba in such a way.

“Tumble, for the last time, I swear. It. Doesn’t. Matter.” Bomba stomped her foot with each word for emphasis, tail lashing wildly behind her. 

The queen could be an intimidating sight if she wanted to be, and now was no exception. Although Demeter couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was that would inspire Bomba to argue so childishly with Tumble. Even stranger was the fact that Tumble marched right up to Bomba and tried to intimidate her right back. The effect was rather dampened by the fact that he was much shorter than her. Bomba held her ground as the two stared at each other.

“Everlasting Cat, you’re gonna be the death of me. I’ll never make it to the Heaviside Layer at this rate.” Tumble finally muttered, turning his back on Bomba and heading towards Tugger and Munk’s location. “I’m gonna go find Munk.”

“Yeah, you go find him. I wanna go to Misto’s and get this over with.” Bomba pouted.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Tumble looked over his shoulder to yell at Bomba while still stomping away. 

Unfortunately this combination meant that he ran right into Demeter, who was trying to sneak away unnoticed by the increasingly insane group of cats. Tumble shrieked in surprise and turned to run back towards Bomba. The red queen hissed at Tumble’s return and pounced on the poor kitten, prompting a wrestling match that Demeter thought she would never see. The racket was enough to draw Alonzo out into the open.

“Hey, break it up!” Alonzo moved before Demeter could. “You can’t treat Bomba’s body that way-”

“Pounce started it!” Tumble complained as Alonzo hauled him clear off of his feet. “I was startled by Demeter and then he jumped me!”

“Demeter?” Alonzo paused, still holding Tumble aloft.

“Yeah, so put me down already.” Tumble paused in his struggling to wave at her. “Hi, Demeter.”

“Bomba, what is going on?” Demeter asked the only cat she felt she could trust. Everyone was acting way too weird by this point.

Bomba blinked at her, seemingly at a loss for words. That in itself was highly unusual. Demeter couldn’t ever recall a time when Bomba didn’t know exactly what she wanted to say.

“I’ll explain everything.” Alonzo gently herded her away from the sight. “Tumble, Pounce, you’d better go meet up with Munk and Tugger before they head off to Misto’s without you.”

“What about you?” Tumble asked. “Aren’t you coming with us?”

“No. Someone has to stay here and keep an eye on things. Someone who’s actually in the body that they belong to.” Alonzo glanced at Demeter again as Tumble and Bomba scurried away. “That will make sense in a second, I swear.”

Demeter could only hope.

*****

Tumblebrutus was having quite a day. Of course, he couldn’t complain much, since what was happening before him was probably the most interesting thing he would see all week, but he couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of unease as the day went on.

To an outside observer the most likely explanation of what was going on would be that everyone had simply lost their minds. Tumble, despite knowing the truth, was still inclined to believe that there was a slight degree of insanity involved, and even though he was still in his own body (thank Heaviside for that) he also felt like he was just one step away from going nuts himself.

Of course, none of that was as it appeared. Munkustrap was in the Rum Tum Tugger’s body, Rum Tum Tugger was in Munkustrap’s body, and Pouncival was stuck as Bombalurina. The whereabouts of Pouncival’s body was still unknown, but Tumble had a sneaking suspicion that Pounce knew more about that fact than he let on.

At least Tumble was in his own body. For now. Tumble couldn’t help but feel that at any given moment whatever magic Misto had done before could very well happen again. That was a thought that kept him from laughing too much at the sight before him.

Tugger and Munk were arguing. That in itself wasn’t really surprising, since they were brothers and, at times, complete opposites, but what they were arguing about was so trivial that both Tumble and Pounce could only watch and listen in bemusement. Alonzo, who was accompanying them to the edge of the junkyard, looked like he was developing a headache.

“Look, you can’t fight it. You have to work with it.” Tugger explained to his unwilling audience.

“I can work with it later.” Munk tried to shrug his brother off of his newly acquired mane. He had spent the last couple of minutes spitting rogue bits of fur out of his mouth before Tugger finally intervened.

“You will work with it eventually. I can’t have you ruining my good looks and reputation.” Tugger tried to stick his thumbs in his nonexistent belt and jabbed himself in the waist. “Everlasting Cat, this is annoying. I feel naked.”

“Here, just put this on before you give me bruises.” Munk struggled a bit with the belt around his waist. Alonzo stepped in to help him.

“Now there’s a sight.” Tugger grinned. “Never thought I’d see Alonzo willingly undress myself.”

Both Pounce and Tumble groaned. Alonzo’s ears pointedly swiveled away from everyone but there was a touch of pink on his cheeks as he threw the belt at Tugger’s head. Tugger caught it and put it on, standing with his thumbs in his belt and smirking proudly.

“Right, that’s better- what?” Tugger paused in his posing.

“You just… It looks….” Alonzo trailed off, giving Tugger a peculiar look.

“Munk looks… weird in a belt.” Pounce frowned.

“Kinda looks good?” Tumble tilted his head to the side. “But yeah, definitely weird. And Munk smirking is just wrong.”

Munk sighed. “If we could all stop staring at me I’d appreciate it.”

“You’re staring at yourself too.” Tugger pointed out.

“Look, let’s just try to get to Misto’s home without any further incidents.” Munk was not one to beg but he looked close to it.

“Fine. But we need to lay down some ground rules. One, don’t do anything in my body that I wouldn’t do.” Tugger thought about what he just said. “Actually, don’t do anything that I would do. Just… try not to mess me up more than you have.”

“Mess you up? I haven’t done anything!” 

Alonzo rolled his eyes and moved to stand by Tumble and Pounce. “This could take a while.”

“Yeah.” Tumble said.

“I thought we argued a lot.” Pounce muttered. 

Eventually the four of them left the junkyard, Alonzo bidding them all farewell and hightailing it out of there before he had to witness any further unsettling sights. Misto’s home wasn’t outrageously far from the junkyard, but the walk was greatly hampered by the fact that as soon as they were out in the open it started to pour down rain.

By the time they made it to their destination they were all thoroughly soaked and even more out of sorts than when they had started their journey. Tumble desperately hoped that the rest of the evening would be uneventful. He didn’t think he could take many more mysteries and surprises.

It was Tugger who led them around the house to a side window, leaping up on the windowsill and pawing at the glass. To everyone’s surprise it opened, revealing a vaguely surprised Mistoffelees.

“Munkustrap, what brings you here at this hour?” The magical cat asked. 

“Come on.” Tugger called down to the others. “We’ll explain once we’re inside.”

Misto glanced down to see that he was about to play host to a crowd and quickly moved aside to let them all in. Only once everyone was inside and dripping all over the carpet did he repeat his question.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise." Misto said, voice wavering only a little as the unusual group of cats stared down at him. “What brings all of you here to my home in the pouring rain?”

“Hey, Sparkles, before we get started, do you have a towel and a brush?” Tugger asked, stepping forward and pushing Munk aside before he could explain. “I’m not about to let Munk disregard my body’s general maintenance.”

Misto stared at who he had previously assumed was Munkustrap. Tumble could see the wheels turning in Misto’s brain as the magician took another good look at them.

“Oh.” Misto’s eyes slowly traveled between them all. “I take it that you’ve all been… affected by what happened.”

“No, I’m still me.” Tumble quickly said. “I just came along to keep an eye on Pounce. But everyone else here is swapped.”

“You got it. But seriously, towel and brush.” Tugger said, already trying to paw the rainwater out of his mane even though it was currently not attached to him. Munk allowed it if only to keep Tugger occupied.

“This is going to be a long night.” Misto sighed.

*****

It took almost an hour to get them situated and by the end of it Munk was ready to kill something. Or someone. Probably Tugger, if he was honest. His brother had thoroughly toweled him off and brushed his mane into oblivion, leaving him nice and groomed and thoroughly irritated.

But killing Tugger meant that Munk would also be killing his body, which meant that there would be nothing to go back to after the eventual body swapping fix, which then meant he would be stuck as Tugger forever, leaving him to forever be seen as his brother and not himself, meaning that he would-

He had to stop that train of thought or he’d go crazy. If he already wasn’t crazy. It was getting increasingly difficult to tell. Hopefully he had managed to hide his rising irritation and increasing insanity from the others. 

Munk shook himself and batted the brush away from his face. “Tugger, please, just stop. I know you can’t preen yourself, but you really need to give it a rest.”

“Fine, but we’re not finished.” Tugger instead turned his attention to Misto, who was busy talking to Tumble and Pounce. “Hey, we’re ready now.”

“Finally.” Pounce whined. “Took you long enough.”

“Perfection takes time. Speaking of, can you fix this so I can go back to being in my own body?” Tugger asked, cocking his hip to the side in his usual unaffected demeanor. In Munkustrap's body it only made him look more exasperated.

Misto nodded. "Oh, yes, I'm sure I can-" 

"You're sure?" Munk interrupted, trying to sound stern but unable to do so with Tugger's voice. "I'd prefer if you were certain."

"You see, the magic is a bit tricky." Misto tried to explain. "It's going to take some time but it shouldn't be impossible to undo."

"Not really giving me confidence, Sparkles." Tugger said. Munk had to agree with him on that one.

"Don't call me that." Automatically Misto turned to Tugger's body to snap at him but remembered that Tugger was now in Munk's body. The situation was already confusing enough. 

"How long will it take?" Munk asked.

"A couple of hours, maybe a day or two if things don’t go according to plan-"

"Days?" Both Tugger and Munk exclaimed.

"Yes.” Misto shot them both an irritated look. “I need time to make sure I do this right the first time around. Otherwise you could end up in someone else's bodies. Or there's a chance that you could lose your mind entirely."

"Feels like I've already done that." Tugger muttered.

"No argument there." Pouncival's voice, oddly sultry and sensual, came from behind them. It was odd hearing the tom’s actual voice when they knew that he wasn’t currently inhabiting his own body.

"Hey! You've been here the whole time!" Tumble pointed as Pouncival's body sauntered into the room. 

There was no mistaking the hip sway as anything but Bombalurina's, even if it was currently the much rougher, shorter tabby tom that was doing it. Munk didn’t know whether to be relieved or vaguely disturbed to see her.

"Oh, that's just wrong." Tugger said. "Pounce, your body should not be doing that."

"Tell me about it." Pounce groaned, looking like he wanted to gouge out his eyes.

"I didn't even know your hips could move like that." Tumble sounded impressed.

"Believe me, it took some practice before I could get this body to move the way I wanted it to." Bomba flicked her tail under Munk's nose and rubbed up against him, clearly unaware that he was not the real Tugger. Munk felt uncomfortable for a number of reasons, mainly due to the fact that Pouncival would never and should never flirt with him.

“I'm not Tugger." Munk quickly said, gently pushing her over towards his body. "I got swapped with him."

"Oh." Bomba turned her attentions to where the real Tugger was. "Pardon me."

"Can you please stop using my body to flirt with Tugger and Munk?" Pounce demanded. "I didn't use your body to hit on anybody."

"That's because the one cat you want to hit on is currently wearing your face." Tumble muttered. "I can't blame you for not wanting to flirt with a face like yours-"

"You know what? I'm an amazon now. I can take you down!" Pounce leapt on his brother. 

"Please tell me they haven't been wrestling around like that while Pounce has been in my body." Bomba said, mildly disturbed as Tumble ended up pinned in a compromising position.

"Well, they haven't not done that a few times already." Tugger said all too innocently.

"So you've been here with Misto this whole time?" Munk asked, stepping out of the way as Pounce and Tumble rolled past him. 

"Yes. Well, I woke up in the junkyard in Pounce's body. That was quite a wake up call, let me tell you." Bomba looked down at herself. "This body may be small but it's built like a tank with springs for legs. I almost killed Misto just trying to figure out what was going on."

Tugger laughed. Munk shot him a look.

"Anyways." Bomba continued. "Once I realized that Misto was with me- and let's not even start to wonder why he and Pounce were sharing a bed in the first place- it wasn’t difficult to assume that magic had something to do with it. After a little conversation Misto kindly brought me here to stay until he could figure out how to undo what he did."

"Pounce and I weren't doing anything important." Misto said distractedly as he watched Tumble struggle to win the fight.

"The more you say it like that the more suspicious it sounds." Tugger pointed out. "Some might say that you two might have a secret thing going on."

"Pretty safe to say that if that was the case it would be terribly one sided." Munk said rather dryly. "Pounce only has eyes for one cat."

The wrestling match had stopped between Pounce and Tumble, mainly due to the fact that somehow in the scuffle Tumble had accidentally grabbed a part of Bomba's body that Pounce took great offense at, resulting in him bouncing away from his brother and launching insults from the top of the couch.

Bomba sighed. "At least the kid's got good taste."

“I assure you that Pounce and I do not have anything going on between us. Or at least not of that nature." Misto rolled his eyes. "But I will admit that without Pounce this might not have happened."

"What?" Munk and Tugger asked.

"What did he do?" Bomba demanded, loud enough for Tumble and Pounce to take notice.

"I didn't do anything!" Pounce shouted from the top of the couch.

"Me neither!" Tumble added automatically. "Er, what are we talking about?"

"Pounce wasn't directly involved with the actual magic." Misto said. "He just gave me the idea."

“Hey, you said you weren’t gonna tell them!” Pounce dove off of the couch, tumbling down over the cushions and landing on his feet in front of them all. “You said-”

“Relax, Pounce, I’m not going to say anything they don’t need to know.” Misto said, expression remarkably calm in the face of the agitated queen. 

“Fine. But if you say anything that’s not a part of this whole situation I’m gonna be mad.” Pounce flopped down on one of the cushions he had displaced and fixed them all with a suspicious glare.

“Right, we’ve established that there’s some big secret Pounce doesn’t want to get out. Normally I’d be all about figuring out why but I think it’s time that we all get back to the bodies we belong in.” Tugger insisted.

“I agree. I’m pretty sure you have fleas, Pounce.” Bomba scratched behind an ear.

“This sucks.” Was all Pounce said to that.

“Please, let’s all get back on track.” Munk said. “We can discuss fleas later.”

“Yes. As I was saying, Pounce gave me the idea to see if altering another cat’s body with magic was possible.” Misto said far too calmly. “So we decided to try it out.”

“And we ended up like this.” Munk said, giving Misto a serious side eye. 

In the future Munk would have to have a serious chat with the cat about what was and what was not morally acceptable to practice. Also, the fact that Misto had talked with Pounce about the possibility and decided that it was a good idea was not instilling Munk with confidence. Maybe it would be better if the two stopped hanging out so much.

“No.” Misto shook his head. “At first nothing happened. So I tried it again.”

“And then we ended up like this.” Tugger said.

“No. Just like before nothing happened.” Misto sighed. “Pounce fell asleep and I also decided to call it a night.”

“And then we ended up like this.” Pounce said.

“Yes. Then it happened. I woke up to being nearly pounced to death by Bomba in Pounce’s body.” Misto gave her an unimpressed look. “At the time I only thought that Pounce and Bomba had been swapped, so I invited her back here to try and sort things out.”

“Why didn’t you go get Pounce?” Tumble asked.

“Honestly, I thought that I’d have everything sorted out before Pounce even woke up.” Misto admitted, looking a little embarrassed. “Obviously it has taken me longer to fix this. And now that it has come to my attention that both Tugger and Munk are also swapped it will take longer.”

“Well, looks like you’re stuck with us for the time being.” Tugger made himself comfortable.

“Yes.” Misto did not look too thrilled at the fact. “Need I remind you that I do have humans. They are asleep for now but if you’re too loud they will find out that you’re all here.”

“We will be quiet.” Munk assured him. “What can we do to help you?”

“For now I need to talk with Pounce.” Misto said.

“Me? Why?” Pounce, who had started to doze, immediately perked up in alarm.

“Because I originally cast the spell on you. If we’re going to reverse this I will most likely need to start with you.”

“Oh all right.” Pounce grumbled, rolling onto his feet. Bomba’s fur stuck up in all different directions. “But we’re gonna talk about this stuff in private.”

“Please at least groom my fur!” Bomba called after him as the two retreated to a different room. “Seriously, that kid is going to wreck something of mine and then he’ll be sorry.”

“Pounce won’t. He likes you too much.” Tumble said. “He’d rather hurt himself before he hurt you.”

“Really?” Bomba looked thoughtful. 

“Yeah, really.” The moment was ruined by the loud growling of Tumble’s stomach.

“Come on, I’ll show you where the kitchen is.” Bomba laughed, pulling Tumble along with her. “You two stay out of trouble.”

“Don’t worry about us.” Tugger lazily waved her away. “Just hurry back before Misto figures out how to fix us.”

Bomba winked at them and looped her arm through Tumble’s as she sauntered off. For a brief moment it looked as if things were totally normal and that Pounce and Tumble were simply off to cause trouble.

"At least one of us is handling it well." Munk muttered, trying to find a position to lay down where his face wasn't immediately consumed by the mane.

The sound of him chuckling at himself made him pause. Munk looked up to see his own face smirking at him. It was an unnerving sight.

"You know, you're not going to win the fight against the mane." Tugger said. 

"I didn't realize it was a separate entity to be fought with." Munk said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's 'cause you don't realize just how much time and effort it takes to maintain. You have to respect it and treat it well or else you'll just lose the battle."

"Are you talking about your mane or your latest romantic conquest?" Munk asked rather dryly. Nevertheless he let Tugger show him how to groom the out of control fur. It was slightly disturbing watching his own body teach him, but his desperation to get the mane under control allowed him to ignore that fact.

"There." Tugger finally sat back after what felt like an eternity. "Nothing to it."

"Easy for you to say." Munk muttered, falling flat on his back and staring up at the ceiling. "I'm exhausted. You do this every day?"

"I have to. How else do you think I achieve such a marvelous look?" Tugger frowned. "Which brings me to my next point. If you're going to wear my body you need to maintain it."

"Excuse me?"

"You need to make sure my fur is properly groomed and that I look good. I have an image to uphold." Tugger was dead serious. "Cettie told me she saw you earlier and was worried. She thought that I- that you- were sick."

"When did this happen?"

"Earlier today. She thought that I was you. I didn't have time to tell her the truth."

"Well, honestly, I didn't either. I doubt she noticed." Munk sighed. "I was in a hurry this morning."

"Yeah, I guess I was too. I kinda yelled at Lonz and then ran off without telling him what was going on. He probably thought you were mad at him." Tugger sounded apologetic.

"He'll be alright." Munk said, mainly to assure himself of the fact. "Once we're back to normal, that is."

"Misto's got this. He'll figure it out." Tugger said, trying to put on a brave face. Unfortunately Munk saw right through it, since it was his own face he was looking at. 

"Yes, I certainly hope so." Munk tried not to sigh again.

"You know, I'm kinda glad that I got swapped with you." Tugger said after some contemplation.

"Really."

"Don't give me that look. It's really weird seeing me make that face at myself." Tugger leaned back and stretched his legs out in front of him, accidentally kicking Munk. "Sorry. You have deceptively long legs. Seriously, I never noticed since you spend so much time crouching or squatting. Your leg muscles are insane."

"Please stay on track." 

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just saying that out of all the cats to be swapped with, at least it was you and not, say… Asparagus or… or Jenny. I don't know what I'd do then."

Munk stared at him. "I hadn't thought about who else we could have switched with."

"Well look at Bomba and Pounce. Bomba got the short end of the stick there." Tugger shrugged.

"Pounce isn't some horrible creature."

"No, but Bomba is definitely used to being the bombshell. Now she's…."

"I get it." Munk closed his eyes. Even if he had been his normal self he still would have been exhausted by the end of a day like this one.

“Hey, why don’t you try and get a nap in.” Tugger suggested. “I can wake you if anything happens.”

“Thanks. Might have to take you up on that offer.” Munk settled back into the cushion. Hopefully when he woke up he would discover that this all had been a horrifying nightmare. At this point he just wanted the mane gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stay tuned for the final chapter!


	4. Magical Mishaps

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for waiting for the final chapter! This has been a lot of fun to write and I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Pounce was, for once, glad that he was in Bomba’s body. At least now he could look down at Tumble instead of feeling like Tumble was looking down at him. Although somehow his brother still managed to corner him and demand to know just what he had done to make Misto do the body swap in the first place. For some reason Tumble seemed to think that the whole situation was Pounce’s fault, which it most certainly wasn’t.

His earlier conversation with Misto was rather brief and not very exciting. Misto had asked him to stand still while he did some glowy magical stuff and then left, muttering about ‘magical transference of energies’ or something, he wasn’t too sure. All Pounce knew was that not long after that Tumble found him and shoved some food in his face before starting his own interrogation.

“I told you, what me and Misto were doing is not important.” Pounce was sorely tempted to throw the leftover piece of chicken at Tumble’s head.

“And I’m telling you that it is.” Tumble insisted. “You’ve been sneaking off in the middle of the night to hang out with Misto and apparently do some serious magical stuff. I know Misto would never hurt anybody on purpose, but he can do some pretty dangerous stuff. And this whole body switching thing is so weird. What if you had ended up in like, Macavity’s body or something? Or lost your brain entirely?”

“That wouldn’t happen.” Pounce did have to think about what he would have done if he had been put in Macavity’s body. He shuddered.

“Look, you know you can tell me anything, right?” Tumble said, suddenly serious. “If there’s anything bothering you or making you upset, I can help. Unless… was it something I did?”

Pounce did not like the look that Tumble was giving him. It was a rare look of hurt that did not suit him at all. With an overly dramatic sigh Pounce flung the chicken to the floor and sat down, hauling Tumble down to sit with him.

“Ugh, fine, I’ll tell you. You’re not gonna leave me alone otherwise and I don’t want you thinking that you did something wrong, because you didn’t.” Pounce pulled his legs up to his chest, resting his chin on top of his knees.

“Well?” Tumble prompted.

“I’ve been meeting up with Misto in secret because I wanted him to teach me how to do some stuff.” There. He said it. Now Tumble could properly rib him for being so secretive about something so dumb.

“Huh?” Tumble tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Stuff like what?”

“Nothing important. Just… how to dance better.” Somehow admitting the fact was more embarrassing than being stuck in Bombalurina’s body.

“But you already can dance.” Tumble tilted his head to the other side, staring at him like he had grown an extra head.

"Not as good as you. I really want to be good at next year's ball so I asked Misto one day if he'd show me some stuff. Night time is the only time he's free so I've been sneaking out at night to take lessons."

“Oh, Pounce." Tumble tried to hug him but it was much more awkward trying to hug Bomba's body. 

"It's dumb, I know, but I wanted to keep up with everybody. And I was having a hard time figuring out the steps so I complained to Misto about how I wished that I could just swap bodies with you since you're real good at dancing and stuff. Misto suggested that instead of turning me into you we could just try and make me a little taller and then… well, I must have been thinking of Bomba when Misto cast the spell."

"But what about Munk and Tugger?"

"Well, the first time Misto cast the spell nothing happened. We thought it just didn't work but that must've been when Tugger and Munk switched."

"That's rough.” Tumble said sympathetically. “Guess I got lucky you didn’t think of me.”

“Eh, you probably wouldn’t even notice.”

“I definitely would notice if I woke up in your body.”

“Hey Tumble, could you not… you know, tell anybody? About the lessons?”

“Yeah, sure.” Tumble shrugged. 

“Promise?”

“Yes, Pounce, I promise not to tell anyone about your big secret with Misto. There’s not really a reason to tell anyways. But you’re gonna have to be less secretive about it. Pretty sure that Bomba thinks you and Misto have some secret thing going on between you two.”

“We do have a secret thing. I just told you.”

“No, Pounce, not like that. Like… you know, like you’re together.”

“But we are together. We’ve been together every night-”

“Heaviside above you can be so dense sometimes.” Tumble groaned and shook his head. “Forget it. It’s not worth trying to explain.”

Pounce opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by the arrival of Munkustrap. The silver tabby sauntered over and raised an eyebrow at the two of them, an amused smirk dancing across his face. 

“And what are you two up to over here? I have to admit, it’s not often I get to see Bomba and Tumble hanging out together.”

Right. Tugger was in Munk’s body. Somehow Pounce forgot.

“We weren’t doing anything.” Tumble automatically said out of habit.

“Yeah, that’s what’s got me curious.” Tugger crossed his arms over his chest and stared down at them. With Munk’s eyes the curious gaze was more intense than usual.

“Well, we weren’t.” Pounce insisted as he climbed to his feet. Bomba’s feet. He missed his own feet.

“Uh huh.” It was amazing how Tugger could put so much doubt into two syllables, even though he was speaking in a voice that wasn’t his own. “You know you’re going to have to tell me eventually. There’s no keeping secrets from me.”

“Fine, I’ll tell you.” Tumble glanced up at Pounce. “But you can’t tell anybody else.”

“Tumble, you said you wouldn’t tell!” Pounce shrieked. In Bomba’s voice he hit a new high that caused everyone’s ears to fly back in alarm.

“Everlasting Cat, keep it down!” Tugger clamped his paws over his ears. “Munk’s trying to sleep and Misto’s still working on fixing this whole body swapped thing. And I’m sure that both of them, as well as myself, would like to have their hearing!”

“Tumble, you can’t tell him, you promised-”

“Shut up Pounce, he’s not gonna leave us alone until we tell him!” Tumble tried to shoulder Pounce aside but it was much more difficult for him to shoulder the taller cat. “And it’s not that big a deal.”

“But-”

“I was telling Pounce about the new stuff I’m doing for the ball next year.” Tumble quickly said, giving Pounce a meaningful look. “He was helping me figure out the choreography.”

Pounce opened his mouth, preparing to be outraged, but quickly shut it again. His brother had kept his promise of secrecy and came up with a believable excuse. Guess he had to give Tumble some credit.

“That’s it?” Tugger shrugged. “You two need to lead more interesting lives.”

“Pretty sure being in Bomba’s body is interesting enough for Pounce right now.” Tumble said.

“Yeah, well, hopefully that will be changed soon.” Tugger glanced back towards the rest of the room. “It was interesting being in Munk’s body for the first hour or so but I’m ready to get back to my own self.”

“We’re all ready for you to go back to yourself too.” Bomba interrupted, appearing on top of the back of the couch. 

“How long have you been up there?” Pounce asked, mildly disturbed to watch himself lounge about.

“Not long. I never knew just how good this body was at climbing things.” Bomba flicked her tail and sat up into a crouch. “Not to mention how high you can jump. I’m impressed.”

Pounce took a minute to glow at the praise before switching back to being disturbed, especially when Bomba launched herself off the couch and flew through the air, tucking into a roll and bouncing onto her feet next to the others.

“Hey, don’t kill me! I need that body!” Pounce protested. “It’s the only one I’ve got!”

“Up until now, at least.” Tumble muttered.

“You’re fine.” Despite the fact that Bomba now shorter than him she still managed to ruffle the fur on top of Pounce’s head. “Your body is also quite resilient.”

“Could you please stop talking about Pounce’s body like that? Especially when you’re currently inside it?” Tugger raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, it’s really weirding me out.” Tumble nodded in agreement.

“You just don’t know a good thing when you see it.” Pounce sniffed.

“Neither do you, you-” Tumble was interrupted by the arrival of Tugger’s body, who looked haggard and like he had not slept at all. His mane stuck up in all different directions and he held himself with a world weary posture that didn’t suit him.

“If you could all stop yelling at each other, that would be much appreciated.” Munk said, voice low. It was not a suggestion. “If we are caught by Misto’s humans and thrown out before this situation can be resolved I will not be pleased.”

“Sure, Munk.” Tugger gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “We’ll keep it down. Why don’t we go check on Misto and see how he’s coming along?”

Tugger draped an arm over Munk’s shoulders and steered him away, glancing over his shoulder at Tumble, who caught the look and nodded.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go and, uh, and see if there’s- if there’s… uh, any more food.” Tumble trotted after the others, leaving Bomba and Pounce alone.

“Your brother isn’t very subtle, is he?” Bomba chuckled once they were alone.

“Out of the two of us he's usually the subtle one.” Pounce shrugged. “Dunno what’s gotten into him today.”

“I can imagine he might be a little caught off guard by the fact that his brother has been turned into me.”

“I told him to stop staring.” Pounce muttered. “‘s not polite.”

“Sure, it has nothing to do with the fact that you have a secret crush on me?” Bomba gave him a knowing wink.

“No- wait, you know?” Little by little his world was crashing down around his shoulders and there was nothing he could do about it.

“Pounce, everyone knows.”

“Oh.”

“You know, I’m flattered.”

“Yeah, well, I think I’m gonna go die now.” If it were possible for the ground to swallow him up whole he would gladly allow it. Anything to avoid what was inevitably going to be the most awkward conversation of his life.

“Please don’t die.” Bomba said. “To quote somebody I know, ‘it’s the only body I got’.”

“Wonder who said that.”

“Pounce, I know that being stuck in my body was probably not how you wanted to get to know me-”

“Please, please stop saying it like that-”

“-but I want you to know that while I was very surprised to be swapped with you, I think I’ve come to understand some things about you that I wouldn’t have known before all this.”

Pounce could only imagine what some of those ‘things’ could have been. 

“And you know, when I was talking with Misto, he said some very nice things about you. He said you were full of potential.”

“Yeah, I’m sure he did.” Pounce muttered. 

“I’m being honest here. And I’m trying to make you feel better.” Bomba flicked his nose with her tail. “You really do have potential. To be honest, it’s been kind of fun jumping around and climbing on things. You’re an agile little guy, you know?”

“Please don’t call me little.” Pounce groaned. “I can’t help it if you’re so much bigger than me.”

“Excuse me?” Her words were dangerously calm.

“Er, forget that I called you big. You’re not big. You’re just-”

“How about we both just ignore the unflattering adjectives and pretend that neither of us said anything.”

“Good idea.” 

“You know, after all this, we should spend more time together.” Bomba rubbed up against him. While it was strange to have his own body nuzzling him he still felt a small degree of comfort. “I overheard you talking to Tumble about wanting to learn how to dance better. I could show you some things.”

That was enough to make up for the seemingly never ending train of embarrassment Pounce had found himself on. If only he wasn’t currently wearing the body he desperately wanted to flirt with. And, despite it clearly being Bomba’s actions, watching his own body flirt with him didn’t do much for his pride.

“Right. Uh, well, after this is all sorted out I will, uh, definitely take you up on that.” Thankfully he didn’t squeak in Bomba’s voice.

“I bet you will.” Bomba smirked and looped her arm in his. “Let’s go find Misto and see if he’s ready to get this show on the road.”

*****

Mistoffelees was about ready to get the show on the road, once he could round up everyone and arrange them into their proper positions. Tugger and Munk had found him tracing lines in the plush carpet and were watching him while keeping a respectful distance. Tumble, however, had ignored the literal crackle of magic in the air and was following him around with unashamed curiosity.

“So what are you doing now?” Tumble asked, pointing to the four indentations Misto was adding to the circle he had drawn.

“Marking out where everyone needs to stand.”

“Why do they need to stand there?”

“So that I can ensure that whatever magic I give off doesn’t accidentally hit the wrong target.”

“You’re saying you might shoot somebody by accident?” Tumble’s eyes grew wide, much like Pounce’s had when Misto had first explained the somewhat erratic nature of his magic. Of course, Pounce had nearly been struck by lightning during last year’s Jellicle Ball when Misto had first shown off his powers, a fact that the tabby tom did not hesitate to bring up time and time again. 

“It’s a precaution. Just in case.” Misto explained. “But it won’t happen.”

“I think I remember Pounce telling me that he almost got electrocuted by some magic when you-”

“If you’ll excuse me, I need to concentrate.” Misto shooed him away.

“But-”

“Go get Pounce and Bomba and tell them we’re ready to start.” The magical cat watched Tumble hurry away, not wanting to incite any magical wrath. 

Not that Misto felt particularly wrathful, but he had to admit that he was a little nervous after discovering just how much trouble his magic had caused. Pounce being swapped with Bomba was, admittedly, a hilarious happenstance (not that he would ever say that out loud), but causing Munk and Tugger to swap was a bit more troubling. How that incident had occurred without him intentionally causing it was beyond him. Hopefully it would be easier to fix the problem now that everyone was together.

It didn’t take long for Tumble to return with the others. Misto nodded approvingly and gestured for everyone to come closer. Better to try fixing things sooner than later. Munk, seeing the four dots around the circle, quickly herded everyone into place without being prompted. It was readily apparent that Munk’s inclination and ability to wrangle cats was not merely limited to his own body but clearly ingrained into his very soul.

“Thank you, Munk. Now, everyone please stand still.” Misto gave the circle a critical eye. “Tugger, step forward a little.”

“You just told me to stand still.” Tugger’s mouth turned up in an aggravating smile.

“Yes, but I need you to move closer.” Misto pointed. “Stand here.”

“But how can I do both-”

“Tugger, for the love of the Everlasting Cat, do as he says or I will personally ensure that you won’t have to worry about ever moving again.” Munk ground out through gritted teeth.

“Munk, I don’t believe I have ever heard you threaten Tugger like that in my life.” Bomba commented as Tugger moved into place. “You should threaten more often. It would definitely make a point.”

“I apologize. I’m just… I’m ready to go back to normal.” Munk said, pinching the spot between his eyes.

“Oh, don’t apologize. Tugger definitely deserved it.”

“Whose side are you on?” Tugger demanded.

“The side that wants to get back into her own body so she can get on with her life.” Bomba said, drawing herself up to her full height, which, seeing that she was in Pouncival’s body, was admittedly not much.

“If it’s all the same to you, I’m gonna step out of the room until you’re done.” Tumble said, inching towards the door. “I don’t wanna be caught in some magical stuff by accident.”

“I assure you that the risk is relatively low, but it’s not a bad idea.” Misto said, nudging Pounce forward an inch. “Perfect. We’re ready to begin.”

“So what do we do?” Tugger asked.

“Just stand still. I’ll take care of the rest.” Misto stepped into the middle of the circle, fur starting to sparkle and glow. 

Honestly the circle wasn’t necessary to perform the body swap magic and was more of a visual tool to keep everyone still, but it did help him get into the right frame of mind. Also it looked more professional. Sometimes the most important element of the magic was simply the belief that whatever he was intending to do would work, as evidenced by the fact that Tugger’s song about him was powerful enough to enable him to bring back by Old Deuteronomy at last year’s Jellicle Ball. Not that Misto would readily admit it, but without Tugger’s encouragement he didn’t think he would have been able to perform such a feat.

“Can you imagine what Lonz and Demeter will say once we’re back to normal?” Tugger’s question interrupted Misto’s thoughts. “Bomba, you should have seen the look on their faces when they found out what happened-”

“Tugger, please be quiet.” Misto said, hurriedly trying to focus his wandering thoughts. 

“You said to stand still, not that we needed to be quiet.”

“Well now I’m saying to be quiet. Please.”

While it may not have been visible to the naked eye, Misto could clearly feel the magical energy in the air around him, igniting his spirit and prompting him to move in an impromptu dance around the circle. There wasn’t a particular routine or choreography to the movement, just pure instinct, and he couldn’t help but revel in the feeling of being one with the magical energy that moved him. This was truly his element and nothing could go wrong.

“Presto!” Misto flourished, pausing in the center of the circle. Everyone held their breath.

“Uh, is something supposed to be happening?” Tugger asked, still clearly in Munk’s body. “Because nothing’s happening.”

“Uh oh.” Pounce said, worrying his still ginger tail. “This is what happened last time.”

Munk’s eyes darted back and forth. “Is everyone still where they were before?”

“Yes.” Bomba pouted.

“Yes, unfortunately.” Tugger said. “Hey, Sparkles, why didn’t it work?”

“I don’t know.” Misto frowned. “It felt like worked.”

“Maybe you should do it again?” Pounce suggested. “Like last time?”

“I don’t think it’s such a good idea to wildly cast magic if it’s not working the first time around.” Munk said, the only indication of his nervousness being the constant flick of his tail. 

“Do you want to be stuck like this forever?” Tugger asked. “Because if he doesn’t try again then we’re going to be stuck like this. And forever is a long time.”

“Fine. But if nothing happens again then we need to think of something else.”

“Something will happen.” Misto said determinedly, bringing his paws up to try again.

After a bit more dancing something definitely did happen. Unfortunately it wasn’t what anyone wanted to happen. Simultaneously everyone fell to the carpet, clutching their heads and complaining of a headache. Misto could only watch as traces of horror and unwanted realizations manifested on everyone’s faces. Suddenly Tumble staggered back towards the circle with a slightly manic smile on his face.

“This isn’t so bad.” Tumble said, looking down at himself and nodding in approval. “Not as handsome as my original self but I can live with this.”

“Excuse me?” Munk looked outraged, then suddenly murderous. “Like hell you’re staying in my body!”

“No, wait, you’re gonna kill me for real if you-” Tumble’s shriek was cut off as Munk tackled him mercilessly to the floor.

“That’s enough of that, you two.” Pouncival tried to cut in but was easily shoved aside. “You’re only going to end up hurting my body as well as Tumble’s.”

Misto took a deep breath to steady himself, only to nearly jump out of skin when Bomba’s paw landed on his shoulder.

“While this is a very interesting sight I’d very much like to be back in my original body now.” Bomba said. 

Tugger nodded, running a curious paw through his mane. “Let me guess, Tugger’s in my body?”

“Yeah. Not bad, might I add.”

“Keep your paws to yourself.” Bomba, who was now in Tugger’s body, sauntered over to stand by Misto. “What happened?”

“Well, it worked. To a degree.” Misto allowed Tugger, who clearly was inhabiting Bomba’s body, to keep his paw on his shoulder. Right now he was trying to piece together who had been swapped with who.

“Pounce, give me back my body right now!” Munk’s body shouted at Tumble. Clearly that was Tumble in Munk’s body. Which probably meant that Pounce was in Tumble’s body. That put Munk in Pouncival’s body, judging by the weary disapproval radiating from the tabby kitten.

“Incredible. No matter what body Munk’s in he still can give off the ‘disappointed dad’ vibes.” Tugger remarked.

“Misto, what can we do to fix this?” Munk asked, turning away from the sight of his body pinning Tumble’s body to the ground. Clearly it was a very one sided fight.

“I’m afraid that the only other option is to return to the junkyard and cast the spell where it was originally cast.” Misto didn’t want to try and explain the logic behind it, but his instincts were telling him to return to where he and Pounce had first cast the magic. It would do more harm in the long run if he ignored his gut. 

Luckily Munk seemed to understand. “Very well. We’re leaving now.”

It took a bit of struggle but eventually Tumble and Pounce were pulled apart and herded out the door. Thankfully it had stopped raining. Misto could only hope that once they were back at the junkyard and properly bathed under the moonlight that things would go according to plan. Hopefully.

*****

Back in the junkyard, unaware of the events transpiring elsewhere, Demeter sighed and curled up closer to her temporary roommate. Neither she nor Alonzo felt inclined to spend the night alone, not without knowing the current status of the body swapped victims, so they had settled down together in Demeter’s den to try and get some sleep. It was hard to tell if Alonzo was truly asleep or not, but at least his deep, steady breathing was soothing enough for her to close her eyes and doze to.

She must have fallen asleep at some point because the next thing she knew she was blinking awake with a slight headache. Carefully she sat up, rubbing her eyes with her paws and trying to stretch without disturbing Alonzo. A flash of black and white in front of her eyes made her pause. 

What happened to her fur? Slowly Demeter stared down at herself. Rather, she stared down at…. Alonzo, who was no longer sleeping beside her, instead replaced by a gold and black queen that looked disturbingly familiar. Demeter did her best not to shriek but she desperately needed confirmation of what she sincerely hoped was not true, so she settled for violently shaking the still sleeping cat’s shoulder.

“Mmph.” Demeter watched as her own body rolled over and pawed at her face. “What’s wrong?”

“You… look at you. Look at me.” She whispered, cringing as Alonzo’s voice came out of her mouth. The voice was enough to make the other cat’s eyes fly open.

“Oh, I am not prepared for this.” Demeter watched her own eyes trace the lines of her body. Slowly the gaze turned towards her. “Please tell me you’re Demeter and not someone else.”

“Yes. I’m Demeter.” She was still herself, at least on the inside. On the outside, however, she was clearly Alonzo.

“Fantastic.” There was no mistaking that sour look as anyone but Alonzo’s, even if it was currently being displayed by Demeter’s face. “Absolutely fantastic. Is anyone safe at this point? Who’s going to switch bodies next, I wonder?”

“How did this even happen?” Demeter asked, staring down at her now black and white fur. 

“It has to be Misto. But I thought Munk and the others were trying to fix this, not cause more problems.”

“Maybe they don’t know that we are now… like this?”

“Probably.” Alonzo sighed. “I guess it could be worse.”

“Thanks.” Demeter couldn’t help but feel offended at his disappointed tone.

“No, that’s not what I meant.” Alonzo quickly backpedaled. “I mean, out of the queens in the junkyard, I’m relieved that I’m in your body. At least I know you well enough. Although Bomba would be fine too, I guess, if I got stuck with her body. She’s not that bad.”

“I’m not going to tell her you said that.”

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t.” Alonzo absently rubbed at the fur on his new arms. “At least now we now know how the others felt.”

“Horrified.” Demeter blurted out without thinking.

Alonzo sniffed but did not comment. He was too busy standing on his new feet and smoothing down his mussed up fur, trying to make himself presentable.

“Well, I’m not going to sit around and wait for Misto to figure out what happened on his own.” Alonzo said once he was satisfied with his grooming. “Who knows how long it will take for the others to come back.”

“Don’t leave me here by myself.” Demeter hurried after him as he headed towards the edge of the junkyard. Just how he managed to maintain his slinky steps in her body was beyond her. She did have to admit that having longer legs was a plus, especially since her longer stride allowed her to catch up to him quickly.

*****

The journey back to the junkyard was uneventful. Not that Tugger was complaining. Despite the uniqueness and excitement of the situation he was more than ready to go back to his usual handsome self. Of course, it would take hours for him to groom his poor fur back to perfection, but it was a task he was more than willing to handle once he was back in his own body.

To everyone’s surprise Demeter was waiting for them at the edge of the junkyard. Instead of hiding in the shadows like she usually did she was instead standing out in the open, staring at them all with a dignified displeasure that did not suit her in the slightest.

“Demeter!” Bomba bounded forward, sweeping the smaller queen up into a hug. 

To everyone’s surprise Demeter slid out of Bomba’s grasp, quickly smoothing her fur back into place. Alonzo appeared behind her, eyes widening at the sight of them all but oddly hesitant to approach. He was hunched slightly forward, body tense, and looked as if he were ready to bolt at any moment.

“Lonz, what’s wrong?” Munk asked, stepping closer to him.

“Pounce? Are you back in your body?” Alonzo asked as Demeter put an arm around him in a comforting gesture. The gold and black queen seemed unusually protective of him.

“Alright, who’s who now?” Demeter demanded. “Because that’s not Pounce. He’s never stood up straight in his life.”

“Hey!” Pounce protested. “That’s just rude!”

“Who are you?” Tugger demanded back. “Because you sure aren’t Demeter, not with that attitude.”

The sour look that Demeter gave him was all Tugger needed to put two and two together. And he wasn’t the only one to make the connection.

“Oh no.” Misto muttered under his breath, quiet enough that only Tugger could hear.

“Alonzo and I were swapped.” The real Demeter said, leaning up against her own body in clear distress. Alonzo, despite now being the shorter of the two, still managed to stand over her protectively.

Bomba joined the two. “Deme, it’s me, Bomba. I’m in Tugger’s body now.”

“How did that happen?” Demeter asked. “Last time I heard you were in Pounce’s body.”

“Misto tried to do the reverse swap and messed it up.” Bomba shrugged.

“It was an accident but I don’t intend on it happening again.” Misto said defensively.

“Like you didn’t intend on having us all swap in the first place?” Tumble asked, placing his hands on his hips. 

“Hey, leave him alone. It’s not like you can do magic.” Tugger tried to cuff him upside the head but missed. 

“Please wait to hit him when he’s back in his own body and not mine.” Munk said. 

“It was not my intention to cause such a problem for everyone.” Misto said. “But if you’ll all-”

“I bet it wasn’t your intention, but here we are now.” Alonzo interrupted, clearly displeased. 

“You have no reason to complain.” Tugger felt his own exasperation boiling over. “You’ve only been swapped for what, twenty minutes? If you can’t handle that then you’re just a-” 

“And you have no right to tell me what I can and can’t do!” Alonzo got right up in his face and poked his chest with a claw. “Not after how you treated me earlier today.”

“Well, excuse me for being freaked out for waking up in Munk’s body and not knowing what was going on, next time I’ll just roll over and make out with you like you wanted, how’s that?”

“That’s not what I wanted and you know it!” Alonzo shoved him.

Tugger shoved right back, nearly bowling the smaller queen’s body over. 

“Hey, watch it! Don’t hurt Demeter’s body!” Bomba ran forward to catch Demeter’s body before it could hit the ground.

“Well, you tell Lonz to shut up and I won’t have to fight him!” Tugger stomped his foot, accidentally stepping on Pounce’s tail, prompting the kitten to shriek and wildly swing his arms in alarm. 

“Ow! Hey!” Tumble whined as Pounce accidentally punched him in the ribs. “Watch where you’re swinging my arms!”

“Tugger stepped on my tail!” Pounce protested.

“Don’t let him step on my tail!”

“I didn’t! It wasn’t my fault!”

“Why were you hanging out so close to him anyways, I knew I couldn’t trust you alone with my body for five minutes-”

“You’re just being a big butt over your stupid tail, I’m the one who got hurt-”

“Why you-” Once again Tumble tackled his brother to the ground. Due to Tumble currently being in Munk’s body, he had enough force behind the tackle to not only shove Pounce to the ground, but was also able to knock Tugger back into a hissing Alonzo.

“Get off of me!” Alonzo tried to scratch Tugger but was held back by Bomba.

“Don’t you dare scratch my body.” Bomba warned.

“Just stop fighting, you’re all losing your minds-” Demeter tried to step in and was promptly knocked head over tail by Tumble and Pounce’s erratic wrestling. 

Tugger had just enough wiggle room to cushion Demeter’s fall with his back. Bomba yowled at the sight of her body being squashed by Alonzo’s, leaving Alonzo free to jump at Tugger again. Tugger shoved Demeter off of him and tried to make a run for it, only to run headfirst into Misto, who was so busy focusing on his own magic that he hadn’t even thought to get out of the way of the brawling cats. 

To say it was chaotic would be the understatement of the year. And there was one cat in particular who had had enough.

“SHUT UP AND STAND STILL!” Munk roared over the arguing crowd. 

As one everyone turned to stare at him. Somehow, despite being in Pounce’s body, Munk managed to loom over them all, giving everyone a very stern and deeply disappointed look.

“Now.” Munk said, voice tight. “Everyone is going to let go of each other and stop arguing. We are all going to stand where Mistoffelees wants us to stand. We are going to do so quietly and in an orderly fashion. We are not going to question why things have turned out the way they did or who has the most problems. Misto is going to cast his magic and set things right. Once this is all said and done, I am going to go to bed. And no one is going to disturb me for at least twenty four hours. Is that understood?”

Everyone nodded.

“I said, is that understood?” 

“Yes.” Everyone chorused.

“Excellent.” Munk turned to Misto, who by sheer force of magical willpower managed not to flinch. “Please, proceed.”

“Er, yes. Thank you.” Misto shook himself. “If everyone would stay where I direct you to stand, that would be most helpful.”

It took a couple minutes for everyone to be arranged to Misto’s liking. Under the light of the full moon the magical cat’s fur sparkled and shimmered with his magic, casting everyone around him in a pale blue glow. Tugger couldn’t help but admire the sight. Across the circle Munk shook his head in a warning, but Tugger wisely kept his mouth shut, not wanting to disturb Misto’s focus.

“Right. We’re going to succeed this time.” Misto clapped his hands twice, small sparks of magic crackling between his paws. His eyes held an unearthly glow.

“Yeah, that looks better. Your eyes are doing the glowy thing like they did before.” Pounce said. “Right before I fell asleep.”

“Are we going to just pass out here out in the open?” Bomba asked, exchanging a worried look with Demeter. 

“Yes, you will pass out, but I will ensure that you are all returned home safely.” Misto did not elaborate on just how he would accomplish such a thing.

“I trust you.” Tugger said with as much sincerity as he could muster. 

Misto smiled at him. “Thank you. Now, if you would all stay still and stay quiet, we will try this again.”

The last thing Tugger remembered before the world went dark was the sight of Mistoffelees dancing in the moonlight, surrounded by the invisible aura of magical energies swirling around them all. It was a sight that he would not soon forget.

*****

When Munkustrap opened his eyes it was morning. Immediately he threw his arms up in front of his eyes, instantly gratified to see the familiar silver and black fur. The relief he felt was almost enough to bring him to tears. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Alonzo sitting stiffly on the other side of the bed and watching him carefully.

“Lonz, is that you?” Munk sat up.

“Yes.” Alonzo’s voice was hesitant. “Are you Munk?”

“Yes. I promise.”

“Oh thank the Everlasting Cat.” Alonzo immediately hugged him. “I was afraid of who I was going to wake up next to.”

“What about everyone else?” Munk wondered. “Did they all end up back where they were supposed to be?”

“I believe so. At least, no one’s come by to complain. I think they’ve all taken your words very seriously and won’t disturb you until the twenty four hours are up.”

“Ah. Well, I might have been a little carried away at the time.”

“No, we all deserved to be yelled at. Even if I did want to punch Tugger I should have waited until he was back in his own body before attacking him.”

“That’s probably a good thing to keep in mind for the future.” Munk settled back down and closed his eyes. 

“Did you want to go check on the others?” Alonzo asked, amusement evident in his voice.

“If what you say is true then I have at least until nightfall before anyone disturbs me. I intend to make the most of it.” Munk blindly reached out and pulled Alonzo down next to him. Alonzo’s laugh was the last thing he heard before he fell back into a blissful slumber.


End file.
